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In this interactive workshop, you will learn what’s possible with artificial intelligence, establish trust (and a healthy distrust) of results, and work with your peers to create smarter content.
This will be a hands-on, roll-up-your-sleeves session where we’ll play with a full toolkit of AI: writing, images, audio, video and research.
Plan to Bring:
Pack plenty of ideas you’d like to work on and digital copies of stories you think have more to give. Plan to bring:
- A laptop (fully charged, charger too).
- Several work files, pictures and/or stories you’d like to experiment with (drafts, reports, magazines, newsletters, blog posts, social copy; whatever you’re curious about re-imagining through A.I.).
- An open mind and a little curiosity!
Register for 4 Free Tools Before You Come:
Meet Your Humans:
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Speaker, StoryConnect -
Speaker, StoryConnect
Handy Resources
AI Terms
- Large Language Model: AI system trained on large amounts of text (deep learning) to process, generate and predict language.
- Small LM: Small language models use less energy, great for specific tasks.
- Context: The amount of data the AI pulls from. More context, better answers.
- Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG): Improves context for LLMs. Retrieves data from external sources (knowledge base), gives LLM context, then generates results.
- Generative Pre-Trained Transformer: Used by many chatbots, a GPT is a type of LLM trained on large data sets to understand complex patterns and generate content (mainly text).
- Custom GPT: Trained for specific tasks, tone, and audiences with a knowledge base -Hallucination: When an AI model imagines a pattern in data and provides guesses as facts.
- Bias: Lack of complete data can lead to subjective outcome.
- Prompt: The instructions you give to AI. There are up to four parts of a prompt: what you want AI to do, what style you prefer, what format you want delivered and – when you have original content – what you want the results based on.
- Chat GPT: Sign up for a free version or ChatGPT Plus. chat.openai.com
- Claude: Offers a free version with a monthly prompt limit or a paid version. claude.ai/login
- Gemini: Free basic version with Google account, offers text and limited image generation. gemini.google.com
- Google Notebook LM (beta): notebooklm.google
- Grok: x.ai.
- Perplexity: Search engine, free to use but double-check sources cited. perplexity.ai
- Jasper: Only available as a paid service. Jasper.ai
- Opus Clip: Free trial, then paid membership. opus.pro
- HeyGen: Free and paid tiers. heygen.com
- Microsoft CoPilot: copilot.cloud.microsoft
- Adobe Firefly: Included in Adobe software, with upgrades available for a fee. Learn more.
- 11ElevenLabs: Voice cloning, text-to-speech. elevenlabs.io
- Napkin: Visual storytelling for businesses. Free. napkin.ai.
- Gamma: Presentations, eBooks, social content from text. gamma.app
- Suno: song lyrics/music generation. suno.com
- OpenArt: Use your Google account to sign up for the service; free credits available to generate AI images. openart.ai
- Microsoft Designer: Sign up for the free version (may have to wait for access). designer.microsoft.com
- descript: audio translation, avatar and blog/social content generation. web.descript.com
- Read: Meeting summaries, video highlights. app.read.ai
- Ideaogram: Image generation, limited free options. ideogram.ai
- Google A.I. Studio: Place to play with image to video generation, other AI tools Goole Labs are trying. aistudio.google.com
Using three policy examples from other Utility Pioneers and a bit of help from Gemini, we created a draft policy (written to be largely jargon-free and easy to understand) to get you started.
Policy Examples:
Pioneer’s AI Coverage
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BlogWhen it comes to creativity, think human first, AI second. Think of AI as a writing tool but not the…
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BlogTo help you kick off 2026, we asked our industry partners and Pioneer storytellers to share their storytelling predictions for…
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BlogArtificial intelligence can feel like magic one moment, madness the next. That was the theme of last week’s Madness &…
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BlogAI agents debuted in late 2024, moving what’s possible from casual conversations to action. At the same time, text-to-video generators…
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BlogArtificial intelligence is no longer a fad. Are you ready? Get up to speed with the top three brands featuring…
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BlogUtility Pioneers from across the country converged on Hood River, Oregon, for StoryConnect, Pioneer’s largest story-swapping event to date. For…
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BlogEvery fall public power communicators across the Northwest meet up to trade ideas and find cooperative solutions at the Northwest…
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BlogArtificial intelligence can help you brainstorm ideas, develop a strategy and shorten existing content. Prompts are the directions or questions…
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BlogSearch engines, phone service and pizza (Pepperoni Hug Spot, to be precise) share one thing in common: an advertisement created…
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BlogChatGPT, Bard and other artificial intelligence bots continue to make headlines. Hear what Utility Pioneers think of the new tools…
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BlogChatGPT, Jasper and other writing bots are making headlines. How will artificial storytellers impact the perceived value of utility communicators?…
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Blog
When it comes to creativity, think human first, AI second. Think of AI as a writing tool but not the…
March 17, 2026 at 12:00 am
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Blog
To help you kick off 2026, we asked our industry partners and Pioneer storytellers to share their storytelling predictions for…
January 7, 2026 at 12:00 am
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