WOTS Wordshop: A.I. Nope!

While author-artist-illustrator Raymond Biesinger’s new book deals with the very human battle of independent creative workers versus those that’d swindle them, copy them, and leave them unpaid, it deals with the threat of AI only tangentially. Thankfully, Raymond’s Word On The Street Toronto workshop “A.I. Nope” explores the history of artificial general intelligence in relation to creative folks, its harm to society and the environment, the myth of AI inevitability, and how we can turn its limitations into our strengths. Maybe, too, we can even go on the offensive against it.

This in-person workshop is free to attend. However, if you have the means, we invite you to consider a donation to The Word On The Street as a way of helping to keep these arts events accessible for everyone into the future.

The WOTS Wordshop is located in room 310 of Metro Hall, accessible through the festival site at David Pecaut Square. Take the elevator to the third floor and follow the signage. Advance registration is required. Please arrive 5-10 minutes before the workshop begins, and bring something to write with!

Raymond Biesinger has spent the last two decades as a commercial artist and illustrator, working for everything from the New Yorker to Le Monde, the Guardian, and crappy little Xeroxed zines with a circulation of ten. 9 Times My Work Has Been Ripped Off: An Informal Self-Defence Guide for Independent Creatives is out 21 Oct. 2025 on Drawn + Quarterly.

The Word On The Street is an annual celebration of storytelling, ideas and imagination, hosting Canada's largest FREE book and magazine festival annually and promoting great books by Indigenous and Canadian authors year-round.

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