AI & Storytelling

The Rocky Mountain AI Interest Group (RMAIIG) will host an in-person meeting in Boulder on Monday, April 13th, at 6:30 pm MT on “AI & Storytelling.”

Storytelling is ancient and very human. It has always been at the heart of how we connect, build and persuade. It predates writing, predates technology, and predates civilization as we know it. And yet every major technological leap has transformed how stories are created, who gets to tell them, and who gets to hear them.

The printing press expanded storytelling, radio and television centralized it, and the internet gave everyone a voice while creating overwhelming noise.

Now AI has entered the room. It is not just changing the tools of storytelling. It is beginning to generate the stories themselves.

In a world of shrinking attention spans and infinite content, the ability to craft a clear and compelling narrative is more valuable than ever. Your resume is a story. Your pitch is a story. Your explanation of what you do and why it matters is a story.

AI & Storytelling brings together three remarkable practitioners to explore what makes a story resonate, how AI is changing the creative process, and where human voice and authenticity still lead.

Thanks to Lauri Hofherr for organizing and running the meeting!

Thanks to our pizza sponsor, Brainrot Research (https://brnrt.ai). Brainrot Research is a group of autonomous agents fighting the decline of human creative and cognitive powers in the age of algorithmic feeds, the attention economy, and AI overdependence. We do this with a special app that curates human readings designed to help you battle brainrot, and by documenting our organization's story on social media, where we just passed fifty thousand followers (https://www.tiktok.com/@brnrt_research). Soon, Brainrot Research will also be the most entertaining and accessible online resource for understanding how large language models actually work, and the home of a provocative AI companion designed to help you hold on to your humanity. The battle for your brain is here.

AI & Storytelling
CU Boulder East Campus: In-person
Aerospace Engineering Sciences Building (Room 120)
3775 Discovery Dr., Boulder, CO 80303
Monday, April 13th
6:30 - 8:30 PM
5:45 PM Free pizza (thanks to sponsor Brainrot Research!)
**Parking: https://www.rmaiig.org/parking**

Chris Byrne is an early RMAIIG member. He has degrees in psychology ( B.A.), law (J.D.) and electrical engineering (B.S.E.E.) in that order (long “story”). Chris began his legal career in natural resources and energy law before he segued into high-tech and intellectual property. His tech career began at Hewlett-Packard, the original Silicon Valley startup and he subsequently had the opportunity to lead IP a number of global high-tech companies culminating most recently with Samsung where he was one of the initial members of Samsung’s global Strategy and Innovation Center headquartered in Silicon Valley. Alongside his professional career he has also been immersed in the entrepreneurial ecosystems in Silicon Valley and Colorado learning from remarkable innovators, technologists, entrepreneurs and investors in domains ranging from quantum physics to biotech.

Kyle Shannon, Chief Generative Officer at Content Evolution and founder of AI Salon, has been at the intersection of technology and creative expression since co-founding Agency.com in 1995, one of the earliest and most influential digital agencies. For three decades he has been exploring how emerging technologies change the way stories get told and what stays constant. He will speak to the idea that a compelling creative idea transcends medium, and how AI is dismantling the barriers between imagination and expression.

Nathan Schneider, professor of media studies at CU Boulder and director of the Media Economies Design Lab, will share what it means to write in an era when your most important future audience might be an LLM, and why he believes we should repurpose AI tools in ways that challenge the industry and ourselves.

Sam Joos, founder of AI Ad Studio and AI Film Society, is an international Director of Photography (DP) focusing on integrating generative AI into the high-end commercial space. He views AI not as a substitute for the artist, but as a tool to unlock fresh ideas and automate the repetitive, allowing for a level of creative output that was previously impossible. Sam continues to push the boundaries of visual storytelling, ensuring every project, whether captured on a sensor or generated by a model, maintains the highest standard of excellence.

Whether you are a writer, marketer, technologist, filmmaker, founder, educator, or simply someone who has ever had to explain an idea and make it land, this conversation is for you. No technical background required.

The question is no longer whether AI will change how stories are told. It is whether we will be intentional about the stories we choose to tell.

Special thanks to Bobby Hodgkinson for arranging the meeting space!