The AI literacy speaker comes to Mount Desert Island for a free, all-ages conversation about living with artificial intelligence.
MOUNT DESERT — The Somesville Library will host author and podcaster Jeff Pennington for a free AI Literacy workshop on Wednesday, Aug. 26 at 5:30 p.m. The event is open to the public, and no prior experience with AI is required.
Pennington is the author of “You Teach the Machines: AI On Your Terms (2025)”, a plainspoken guide for people who want to understand artificial intelligence — whether they embrace it, question it or choose to opt out. Written for readers who don’t have a technical background, the book has reached audiences in print, ebook and audio, and has led to a podcast of the same name that Pennington co-hosts with his daughter.
The workshop came before the book. Pennington has led these sessions for more than 850 people from California to Maine, with participants ranging in age from 12 to well past 80. He has found that curiosity about AI usually arrives paired with unease. “Nine out of ten people I meet are afraid of AI,” he says. His workshops are built to replace that fear with understanding: what these tools actually are, what they can and can’t do, and how ordinary people can decide for themselves what role — if any — AI should play in their lives.
Drawing on more than 25 years in data science and artificial intelligence, Pennington uses real examples from finance, cooking, health, music, driving and everyday life to show how you and your data are used to teach today’s AI, and what you can do to protect yourself. The session is conversational and open to all comers, from the AI-curious to the AI-skeptical.
“You Teach the Machines: AI On Your Terms” is carried locally at all Sherman’s stores and at Hidden Barn Books in Bar Harbor. The book is also available to borrow at area libraries — including the Somesville Library, the Southwest Harbor and Northeast Harbor Libraries. It can be requested from more than 60 libraries statewide through the Minerva system.
The intro to the book can be heard free atyouteachthemachines.com/audiobook-introduction.
WHAT: “You Teach the Machines” AI Literacy Workshop with author Jeff Pennington
WHEN: Wednesday, Aug. 26 at 5:30 p.m.
WHERE: Somesville Library, 1116 Main St., Somesville (Mount Desert), Maine
COST: Free and open to the public
REGISTRATION: No registration required
Pennington has worked for more than 25 years in data, data science, and artificial intelligence, and has authored or co-authored more than twenty peer-reviewed papers in biomedical informatics, data privacy, and health AI. He began his career developing web search analytics at Ask Jeeves, one of the first major commercial natural-language search engines, and most recently served as Chief Research Informatics Officer for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute. He is the author of “You Teach the Machines: AI On Your Terms” and co-hosts the You Teach the Machines podcast with his daughter. Find him online at youteachthemachines.com.
The Somesville Library, built in 1895, is a private institution that’s open to the public. Nestled on the shore of Mill Pond and Somes Sound, it occupies a prime spot in the historic village and in local residents’ and summer visitors’ lives. The Library offers roughly 20,000 physical and electronic books plus an ongoing book sale, and functions as a year-round community hub for all manner of activities, including group meditation, ASL gatherings, soup nights, author events, lectures and presentations.