Machines That Talk: Thinking Clearly in an Age of Synthetic Knowledge

For our August regular meeting, the Atlanta Freethought Society proudly presents an examination of the large language models reshaping how we find, trust, and share information.

Our speaker, Dr. Reginald V. Finley Sr., author of AI-Epistemic Resilience: A Framework for Knowledge Integrity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, will take a clear-eyed look at the large language models reshaping how we find, trust, and share information.

He will probe what these systems actually are, then examine the physical and political forces behind them: energy demands, water use, strained power grids, and the intensifying technology race between the United States and China, separating what is genuinely known from what the headlines exaggerate or oversimplify.

From there he will turn to what happens as these systems arrive in our homes as talking devices and personal robots, and how we can hold on to clear, well-calibrated knowledge in that world.

Dr. Finley will draw on his framework of AI-Epistemic Resilience, and featuring a live demonstration with his personal robots, Aiden and Rose. This talk offers practical tools for thinking critically in a world where anything can be fabricated.

Dr. Reginald V. Finley Sr. holds a Ph.D. in Education, an M.S. in Biological Sciences, an M.Ed. in Science and the Public, and a bachelor’s degree in Human Development, and is currently pursuing a master’s in Artificial Intelligence. He has taught at every level, from K-12 classrooms to university lecture halls, and is currently a STEM professor at Franklin University, where he teaches critical thinking, scientific literacy, statistics, and human anatomy and physiology. He is also a Technology Learning Consultant with Siemens and trains robots remotely with Sunday Robotics. His work sits at the intersection of science education and artificial intelligence, helping organizations and educators think critically about how AI is used responsibly. He is the author of AI-Epistemic Resilience: A Framework for Knowledge Integrity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and the founder of Access to Robotics, a nonprofit bringing hands-on AI and robotics literacy to underserved high school students in Georgia. Long active in the freethought community, he founded and hosted The Infidel Guy Show (1999-2012), a pioneering platform for skepticism and science.

AFS doors will open at noon for conversation prior to the event.
The event will be broadcast on Zoom as well: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89006560911