This course explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping the way we write, read, and engage with language. Focusing on generative text models, creative writing, and critical perspectives, you’ll learn how language models are trained, how artists and writers are using them in practice, and what social, ethical, and cultural questions they raise. By the end of the course you will be able to:

Explore how AI can generate and manipulate language using tools like RNNs, LSTMs, and large language models such as GPT. Understand how machine learning systems represent meaning, similarity, and structure in text through vector spaces and model training. Evaluate the social and ethical implications of language models, including disinformation, bias, surveillance, and the future of authorship. Experiment with code-based and web-based tools for generating text, and reflect on how AI might expand or challenge your own writing practices. Through creative walkthroughs, coding demos, and critical discussions, you’ll learn how language models function, reflect on how they relate to broader histories of text production, and examine the cultural impact of machine-generated language in media, publishing, and online discourse. Featuring insights from leading researchers, technologists, and experimental writers, this course provides both the conceptual grounding and practical tools to begin working with AI in your own creative text-based projects. No coding experience is required, just curiosity and a desire to explore new forms of writing and expression.