Beautiful Particulars: How AI’s attention to the smallest of differences is re-shaping our biggest ideas with David Weinberger

The OLLI Distinguished Speakers Series presents:

Beautiful Particulars: How AI’s attention to the smallest of differences is re-shaping our biggest ideas

June 11 at 4:00 p.m. ET

In-person at Berkshire Community College
and Online via Zoom

Sponsored by Kimball Farms Life Care

Join us for a talk by and with David Weinberger of his upcoming book, Beautiful Particulars: How AI’s attention to the smallest of differences is re-shaping our biggest ideas. 

The talk's premise is that we tend to understand  ourselves and our world in terms of the dominant tech of our age: The universe looked like a clockwork when clockworks were the most sophisticated technology. Likewise for computers, the Internet, and now AI. So how might AI be affecting our most basic ideas?  Dr. Weinberger begins by explaining in simple terms  how AI works: It pays attention to the particular details of a situation rather than examining it in terms of universal laws and principles. And that, he says, changes everything.  

He will explore this by seeing what basic concepts such as fairness and knowledge look like in AI's light. In that light, he finds things look much closer to our actual, lived experience. While acknowledging the appropriate alarm about the dangers AI poses, Dr. Weinberger's  assessment of the new world we are entering is distinctively positive.

About David Weinberger

With an extensive background in Web and AI companies, and a Ph.D. in philosophy, David Weinberger writes and speaks about the effect of technology on our ideas.

He has long been affiliated with Harvard as a researcher and fellow at that university's Berkman Klein Center,  Shorenstein Journalism Center,  the Library Innovation Lab, and metaLAB. He recently was embedded in Google AI humanities and ethics teams for four years as a writer-in-residence. He has been an adviser to three presidential campaigns, and was a Franklin Fellow at the U.S. State Department. 

David has written six books and countless articles about tech and philosophy in publications such as  Scientific American, the Atlantic, Wired, Harvard Business Review, and many more. His latest book, Beautiful Particulars: How AI's attention to the smallest of differences is reshaping our biggest ideas, will be published by MIT Press in November 2026. 

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This lecture will be recorded and available for viewing at the convenience of registrants.

Ticket information:

Admission is $10 for OLLI at BCC members and $15 for the general public.

Admission is free for students, staff and faculty from Berkshire Community College, MCLA, and Williams; youth 17 and under, and those holding WIC, EBT/SNAP, or ConnectorCare cards.