Hey AI LA Community,

We were on a bit of a creative content hiatus but ‘tis no more. Two distinguished writers will give their take on what being an artist and working with AI is about. Starting this week with Dr. Maya Ackerman. See below!

Also! We are creating a master class for Q1 and would LOVE your feedback!

Upcoming AI Innovation Events

AI, Art & Us with Dr. Maya Ackerman

THIS WEEK!
Thursday, January 22nd: 6:30 - 8:30 PM | Venice

Drawing on insights from her book, "Creative Machines: AI, Art & Us," Dr. Maya Ackerman invites us to rethink the relationship between humans and machines, offering a path forward that uses AI not to overshadow us, but to elevate human imagination and expression. Practical dimensions of the current threats and opportunities will be discussed.

For those interested in buying Maya’s book, you may find it on Amazon and elsewhere.

Claude Code for Non-Engineers

Saturday, March 14th: 12:00 - 3:00 PM | Venice

​Many people want to use AI to build software or internal tools but struggle to get reliable results—especially without a technical background.

​In this hands-on workshop, Vincent Vu, a software engineer at Uplimit (an AI-native learning platform), will teach a practical, repeatable way to work with Claude Code based on real-world experience building internal tools and product features. Participants will learn how to break ideas into clear steps, write effective requirements, and work incrementally so AI output stays understandable, testable, and useful.

​The final hour will be a guided hack session where attendees can build something of their own using Claude Code, with live support and feedback from Vincent and Fil from the AI LA team.

The Role of the Artist in the Age of AI

Thursday, March 26th: 6:30 - 9:00 PM | Venice

Composer, Emmy Award Winner and Venture Capitalist, Lucas Cantor Santiago, will discuss the ideas featured in his new book, Unfinished: The Role of the Artist in the age of AI. Come enjoy a discussion about the meaning and purpose of art and technology.

Free Happy Hours and Meetups

AI Policy Meetup

Wednesday, January 28th: 6:00 - 8:00 PM | MidCity

Join us for an AI Policy Mixer in the heart of Miracle Mile! This event brings together professionals and enthusiasts from AI, policy, and technology to exchange ideas and explore emerging trends. Whether you’re a policymaker, technologist, researcher, or simply curious about the future of AI, all are welcome to join the conversation.

GenAI Happy Hour

Monday, February 9th: 5:00 - 7:00 PM | Pasadena

​Join us for a casual evening AI meetup in the heart of Pasadena! This friendly get-together is the perfect opportunity for GenAI enthusiasts, hobbyists, experts, and newcomers alike to connect, share insights, and learn from each other in an informal setting.

Codebase Understanding w/ Cognition Recap

Last week at AI LA HQ in Venice, we hosted Codebase Understanding w/ Cognition—a deep, hands-on session for engineering leaders and developers working with large, long-lived codebases.

The evening focused on a core reality many teams are running into: AI model quality alone isn’t enough. Without real understanding of an existing codebase, migrations, refactors, testing, and modernization break down—fast.

The Cognition team walked through their journey from research origins to Devin and the Windsurf acquisition, then showed how these pieces come together to enable truly code-aware, agentic workflows. Rather than abstract demos, attendees followed along live in a shared repository, watching how Windsurf supports navigation, reasoning, and execution across a complex codebase.

What stood out most was the emphasis on practice over hype: how codebase understanding changes day-to-day engineering workflows, where current tools succeed or fail, and what’s actually required to deploy AI safely inside enterprise environments.

Huge thanks to the Cognition team and to everyone who joined us for an engaged, technical night of learning and discussion. More workshops like this coming soon from AI LA.

If you’re interested in presenting a project or your product at a future developer event- please email [email protected].

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What we are reading

Kate

My Blue Dot Impact cohort is made up of really smart professionals from diverse backgrounds and geographic regions. One such person is Natalia Cote Muñoz, who just published this awesome article. It's like an AI workbook lesson wrapped up in a Chani Nicholas episode. <swoon>

Fil

Last week, OpenAI announced it’s expanding access to ChatGPT with the $8/month Go plan. They plans to begin testing ads on the free and Go tiers to reduce paywalls and usage limits.

OpenAI claims ads won’t influence answers, won’t use or sell conversation data, won’t appear in sensitive categories, and can be personalized or turned off - while paid Pro, Business, and Enterprise tiers stay ad-free.

Would you pay $8 a month instead of $20 if it meant your responses had ads embedded in them? Would love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to drop a vote on my poll in the AI LA+ members slack 😉