The 411 on AI
Why is AI Important to Communicators (of all kinds)?
Christen Beck
As a Senior Content Producer at LinkedIn Learning, Christen has a decade of experience in online education and video content production. After earning her Master’s in Instructional Design and Technology, she sought opportunities to dig deeper into AI. Christen specializes in developing online learning experiences that enable learners to acquire new skills and advance their careers.
Rita Raley
Rita is Professor of English at the University of California Santa Barbara with courtesy appointments in Film and Media Studies, Comparative Literature, and Global Studies. Her primary research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of digital media and humanist inquiry, with an emphasis on cultural critique, artistic practices, language, and global formations. One thread that extends throughout her work concerns machine translation and machine writing, which has most recently led to publications focusing on GPT-2 and collaborative projects on Critical Machine Learning and โCritical AI.โ
In addition to previous teaching positions at the University of Minnesota, Rice, and NYU, she has held fellowship and short-term residency appointments hosted by the National Humanities Center; the University of Bergen, Norway; the Dutch Foundation for Literature in Amsterdam; and UCLA, the last as part of a Mellon-funded project on the Digital Humanities. She co-edits the Electronic Mediations book series for the University of Minnesota Press and is an Associate Editor for ASAP/Journal. Her website is: raley.english.ucsb.edu. She is also on Twitter: @ritaraley.
Jorge Mercado
Jorge Mercado is the co-managing editor of the Pacific Coast Business Times, specializing in covering technology, startups, and more across the Central Coast. He graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2019 and worked at the school newspaper, The Daily Nexus, throughout his college career, serving as the editor-in-chief his final year.”