Summer PIT Stop: “Camp Black Box – How AI Sees Words”
Part 3/5 of our Summer PIT Stop workshop series – sign up HERE for sessions at 11:30am or 4:30pm!
At Camp Black Box, we’ll peek under the hood of large language models and turn invisible AI magic into something you can see, touch, build, and even print. Campers will discover how words get chopped into tokens, how sentences can become 3D shapes, and how AI maps language in strange hidden spaces. Through hands-on experiments with point clouds, embeddings, and 3D printing, we’ll turn prompts into objects and then ask the big campfire questions: What does AI actually understand? What does it totally miss? And why should we care?
This workshop will allow participants to better understand how AI models are made and potential ways certain biases can occur.
Meet the Camp Leader: Catherine McCulloch (she/her)
CUNY Graduate Center, Data Analysis and Visualization
Bio: Catherine is a maker and designer based in Brooklyn, New York. She is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Data Visualization and is particularly interested in data physicalization, where she can combine her hands-on making skills with data visualization. Passionate about transforming complex information into accessible knowledge, she believes that technological literacy and understanding should be available to everyone. Catherine is a certified Kayak instructor and in her free time loves kayaking on the East River. She also enjoys working in ceramics.
About this series: The NYC PIT Pop Up is the place for a summer camp-inspired, public interest technology series where curiosity, creativity, and community come together. Access is limited to the first 30 “campers”, so sign up now!
Each workshop will take place twice weekly, an early “Lunch Session” and a later “After-work session.” Join us and trade the summer heat for cool conversations, creative projects, and hands-on technology workshops that make a difference. Unlock free swag and earn $10 per workshop with a potential for up to $50 in cash stipend for attendance.