Hey AI LA Community,

What better way to maximize the cost of California living than by taking a selfie at the beach this week and tagging your east coast friend? Nah- gloating is not necessary. We have our climate work cut out for us! Which is why this year’s Earth Summit is focused on water storage and and how AI impacts California climate and business ecosystems.

We are also bringing some hands-on skills to the community with two sessions about how to be an AI evangelist within your organization through a panel on March 16th and a Masterclass by Jason Baer from Adobe kicking off in April.

California has experienced warming temperatures and a wide array of extremes over the first quarter of the 21st century. As the average temperature warms, changes are expected in the way water arrives, is stored, and moves across California's landscape. In this presentation, California's observations of precipitation, temperature, snowpack, runoff, and sea level illustrate the change that has occurred relative to the 20th century. Dr. Anderson will discuss the challenges of collecting and processing these diverse data streams—from sensor networks to satellite observations—and how spatial and temporal considerations affect our ability to detect change and track critical thresholds. CalAdapt, California's climate data repository, serves as the platform where these datasets converge for accessible, actionable climate information.

​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.

Join three tech professionals who are driving AI adoption in very different contexts: inside a major enterprise, across client organizations as a consultant, and within a fast-moving startup. This panel explores what it actually takes to move AI from individual experimentation to organizational capability—how they identify viable use cases, build internal support, navigate governance and risk, and measure what's working. If you're leading AI initiatives in your organization or want to position yourself to do this role, this conversation will give you frameworks and patterns you can use immediately.

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.

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

Join AILA’s 7th Earth Summit, to examine the technologies, policies, and ideas shaping our climate future. From artificial intelligence to breakthrough materials science, from state climate policy to investment strategies— explore the full spectrum of how we adapt to our changing planet.

​Can we innovate our way to a sustainable future? Earth Summit brings real data and diverse perspectives about how California addresses climate challenges through policy and technology. What are the actual costs and benefits? Where are the greatest opportunities?

Calling all aerospace professionals, space dreamers, and anyone fascinated by flight! Join us at Rock & Brews in El Segundo for a relaxed evening of lively conversation about everything that soars—within Earth’s atmosphere and far beyond.

​Whether you’re designing the next aircraft or captivated by deep-space exploration, this meetup is for you.

Join us for an AI Policy Mixer at a new location in Chinatown at the Highland Park Brewery! 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.

​AI LA is teaming up with StartOut, whose mission is to increase success for LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs, to host our first queer happy hour! Come sip on a cocktail while talking AI startup valuations or trade bets on Drag Race S18. All are welcome.

Not a member yet? Join our community to unlock this offer and gain access to a full year of events, networking, and opportunities.

These incredible events are made possible thanks to our AI LA+ members, whose support has fueled our growth. Want to help shape the future of AI LA while enjoying exclusive perks? Consider joining AI LA+ and growing with us!

Drama-rama between the Pentagon and Anthropic. Reading this article brings up so many questions. Do we trust what a private-public partnership contract looks like between these two entities when issues of domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weaponry is on the table? We just watched the Supreme Court strike down tariffs Congress never authorized… Now we have a Defense Secretary negotiating AI weapons policy in a closed room. At what point does Congress show up?

Anthropic has positioned its consumer brand to be "safety-first" yet got into classified military systems through Palantir's back door. Whaaaa. And worth noting: the Pentagon originally agreed to Anthropic's red lines in the contract but now it wants to strong-arm its way out of them. That's not just a corporate dispute. That's a policy failure.

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In the past few months, we’ve watched startups raise millions - sometimes tens of millions - with products that barely work, or don’t provide value at all. This is particularly true in SF and LA.

A good read on the Cluely moment and what it says about the startup scene right now. What starts as a profile of Roy Lee turns into a broader critique of a culture that increasingly rewards pure “agency” - speed, virality, fundraising - over depth, taste, or even a working product.

It leaves you with an important question: if leverage and momentum are the dominant signals in tech, what are we actually building toward - and is that the scoreboard we want?