One Monday: October 26 | 9:30 a.m. – 12 noon
Bethany Congregational Church | 556 N. Hope Avenue, Santa Barbara
VISTAS member price: $20; non-member price: $30

Presented by Don Patterson
Artificial intelligence is advancing extremely fast, and this course shows you what the most cutting-edge tools today are doing, spanning research labs, professional studios, and consumer apps. We’ll take a case-study approach, beginning with collaborative research at UC Irvine using AI to build personalized educational videos. From there, we’ll explore the creative frontier through live demonstrations of tools that generate lifelike video avatars, compose original music, produce short films, and act as autonomous agents on your behalf. Along the way, we’ll consider what these capabilities mean for learning, creativity, epistemology, and everyday life and where healthy skepticism belongs. No technical background is required, just curiosity. Attendees are welcome to bring their own examples, concerns, and hopes.