Good morning, and welcome to the LA Times Book Club newsletter.
In an interesting interview with an artificial intelligence expert Joey Bulamowini, Technology columnist Brian Merchant It shows why he felt compelled to become one of the leading scientists and critics of AI, and why everyone should care about his work and his new book, Unmasking AI.
Merchant describes Buolamwinis book as a compelling and digestible guide to some of the most pressing and profound issues arising from the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
As a college student, Bulamowini just wanted to make cool robots. Instead, he ended up exposing big tech and what he calls the coded look. It is the prejudice and racism that he discovered deep within the essential systems that increasingly set the rules for how we live and work. As part of his research, he wrote a landmark paper that showed how facial recognition systems deployed by Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook failed to correctly identify women, particularly women of color, much more than white men.
Bulamowini founded the Justice League algorithm to expose and counter the effects of coded gaze. When you have AI systems that determine whether you get hired or fired, whether you get accepted into college, or whether you get access to medical treatment, it’s much harder to see those kinds of systems, he says.
On November 14 Bulamowini joins the Los Angeles Times Book Club for a live chat that also features Phi Phi LeeAuthor of The Worlds I See about the growth of artificial intelligence and its impact on our humanity.
Like Buolamwini, Li is a prominent voice working to build a more inclusive and problem-solving AI future. Lee is the co-director of Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and also founded AI4ALL, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding computing opportunities for underrepresented youth, including girls and people of color.
Lee and Bulamowini will talk to them Times audio head Jazzman Aguilera And Businessman, author of Blood in the Machine, in a virtual event streaming live from 6pm Pacific. Register For direct links and signed books
Tell us: What would you like to ask our guest writers? Share or email your questions and comments on Eventbrite bookclub@latimes.com.
what next
California Poet Laureate Lee Herrickthe Fresno author and professor who celebrates her home in My California Poetry, has spent the past year on the road meeting singers, students, festival attendees and community groups up and down the state.
On December 12 Herrick joins the Los Angeles Times Book Club for a virtual chat with the Times editor Steve Padilla About his first year as California Poet Laureate. (Registration information will be provided soon.)
California poet Lee Herrick with students at McLean High School in Fresno.
(California Arts Council)
This fall, Herrick is launching a project with the California Arts Council that invites Californians to write poems about their hometown, discovering what they love about it, what they find joy in, what will change about it, or what they hope.
Governor Gavin Newsom In November 2022, it named Herrick the 10th state poet laureate. A former Fresnos Poet Laureate, Herrick teaches at Fresno City College and in the MFA program at the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe. He is the author of three collections of poems, the most recent of which are Oscar and Gol.
During a recent visit to Pacific Grove, Herrick spoke about the importance of libraries. When the world is destroyed, I think three types of people will survive, he said: farmer, poet and librarian.
Setting the scene
On the Los Angeles Public Libraries blog, the librarian Kelly Wallace Explores California’s interior directory and provides photo collections and other resources for novelists trying to recreate authentic Los Angeles scenes and for any reader curious about the city’s fashions, neighborhoods, restaurants, weather, It shares the social and political norms of the past decades.
She also shares her experiences as a YA author and senior librarian Mary McCoy. McCoy says searching for the California flagship is like shopping at the world’s best thrift stores.
I followed up with McCoy for more tips. He tells me that I actually used the LAPL photo collection to find out how much smog there was downtown in 1947, and the street address guide to find out what neighborhood a movie studio journalist might have lived in.
How do you use the California Index to research your books? I use it like I’m a private detective in a public records database. Throw names, neighborhoods, landmarks in there and see what happens. One thing to keep in mind is that this resource is really an old index. So while some documents are scanned, most of what you’ll find are citations that require an in-person visit to the library. But I discovered it working through the California index Kerry McWilliams And WW Robinson. Their names kept coming up, so I started looking for them.
What is the most surprising information you discovered? If you want to miss a day, just type denominations or denominations in the California directory. I found everything from an article about failed utopian communes in the San Fernando Valley between 1910 and 1930 to references to a criminal trial against a sex cult in West Los Angeles in the 1980s called the Church of the Supreme Goddess, and that’s barely even the surface. does not.
What are you working on? I was working on a detective story set in 80s Los Angeles in the goth and metal scenes, and I really appreciated the increased access to digital newspaper collections. When I was researching my first novel a decade ago, it wasn’t nearly as much.
What resources do you usually recommend for writers? Have as many library cards as they allow you! And even if you can’t visit in person, don’t be afraid to call a librarian, especially if you have a very specific question.
What is the last book that kept you up at night? The Downtown Pop Underground by Cambro McLeodwhich truly explores the queer, drag and off-Broadway roots of the punk scene and Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beatonwhich wasn’t what I was expecting, but it was absolutely riveting.
Continue reading
Lasting legacy: Actor Matthew Perry He may be best known for his role as Chandler Bing on Friends, but for those who have struggled with addiction, the memoirs of Actors, Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing may be his most influential work.
When asked at the Aprils Book Festival how he would like to be remembered, Perry said: “As a man who lived, loved well, lived well and helped people.” Dealing with me was a good thing and not a bad thing. (Editor of audience David Viramontes (The Times completes full coverage of Perry here.)
Matthew Perry speaks at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival in April.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
The 7 million dollar dream: Legendary California writer John Steinbeck The old sardine boat has its first modern job. Darwin Beagle, Hemingway had Pilar and for the writer John Steinbeck and biologist Ed RickettsThere was the Western Flyer, he writes, holy ground for their six-week trip in the spring of 1940 to the Sea of Cortez. Thomas Coron From Moss Landing.
new releases: Check out 10 books to add to your reading list this November.
Audio playback: Readers are buzzing about it Michelle Williams Based on Britney Spears’ new best-selling memoir, The Woman in Me. In the New York Times, Frank Rojas To what in the adaptation of a famous singer like Meryl Streep Or Reese Witherspoon “They’re not singing, they’re performing,” said Lisa Hintelman, head of acting and talent at Audible, with an audiobook. They want to be able to give a real performance that comes exclusively from their voice.
Spiritual awakening through the giant cactus: For the Los Angeles writer Melissa BrowderThe Southern California desert provides the perfect backdrop for her new novel, she writes, a witty and psychedelic exploration of a woman navigating the complex emotions of anticipated grief. Shad D’Souza In the Guardian Death Valley is never, ever boring, says the critic Jessica Frey At the Times considering our hero spends 85% of the book in the desert and the rest in the best western.
Giveaways for readers and more: The 2023 Los Angeles Times Holiday Gift Guide is out, featuring 18 of the best memoirs, biographies and cultural histories from years past. Also find Los Angeles-only shopping tips, gifts for cooks and food lovers, and ideas for people who like to experience things like Esotourics. Raymond Chander Bus tour, which includes a visit to the downtown office building where Chandler worked for the Debney Oil Company until his dismissal in 1932 launched his literary career.
Finally, As Tuesday approaches, please consider making a tax donation to the Los Angeles Times Community Fund. If you enjoy our live events with authors and newsmakers, sign up for the LA Times Book Club Charity. You’ll help us produce more live events in 2024, both in person and virtually, and we’ll get your name and organization well-represented online and at the next book club night. Thank you for your wonderful support and participation throughout the year in our community book club.
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