What Comes Next?

What Comes Next? A workshop for ages 13-16, parents, and guardians How does AI know what to say? Does it actually know, or is it just guessing? And why don’t you get exactly the same answer twice? In this hands-on workshop, the participants themselves become a language model. Using sticky notes, a whiteboard, and a single bowl, we will create text, one word at a time, just as generative AI does. We will experiment with how responses change when we give the model different reading material, and what happens when it must answer a question that nobody in the room knows the answer to. At the end, we will test our theories on a real AI system. No lecture and no prior knowledge required. Participants will explain, in their own words, how language models work, why they sometimes make things up, why they rarely say “I don’t know,” and who decides what they are allowed to say. Atli Þór Jóhannsson leads the workshop. This event is part of Soft Networks – Digesting Information Together, a programme series supported by the Icelandic Library Fund. From 11th - 18th of October, Reykjavík City Library will offer a variety of events for children and families across all eight library branches as a lead-up to Media Literacy Week.

For further information: Karl James Pestka,

project manager | makerspace karl.james.pestka@reykjavik.is | 411-6105