Stage & program
AI Keynote Speaking & Lectures
Talks built from work actually done — restoring 69 American newspapers with AI-assisted pipelines, publishing a 137-title catalog, and taking a technical policy proposal to a citywide vote. No slideware futurism.
Signature talks
The Archive Is the Model — why what an AI can say about a community is decided decades before the model is trained, illustrated with before-and-after pages from the Living Archive Series.
Machine Reading the Black Press — a working session on OCR failure modes, model-assisted correction, glossary design, and why the last reader in the pipeline has to be human.
From Draft to Ballot — how a technical proposal became Detroit's Proposal E and passed with 61.08 percent of the vote, and what that process teaches about getting AI policy adopted rather than merely published.
Practical AI for Small Organizations — the short list of AI uses that pay for themselves in a small business or nonprofit, and the ones that quietly cost more than they return.
Formats
Conference keynote, 30 to 60 minutes, with Q&A. University lecture or seminar, up to 90 minutes, suitable for library science, journalism, computer science, and Africana studies programs. Half-day workshop for teams building or buying AI systems. Panel participation and moderated fireside conversation.
Audiences range from technical to general. Talks are adjusted to the room in advance rather than delivered from a fixed deck.
Booking
Use the newsletter contact route on this site to open a conversation about dates, audience, and format. Include the event date, city, audience size, and which talk direction fits your program.
Frequently asked
- What AI topics does Robert Shumake speak on?
- Applied AI in archival restoration, algorithmic bias and training-data equity, machine reading of historical newspapers, practical AI adoption for small organizations, and moving technical policy through a public process.
- What audiences are these talks built for?
- Conferences, universities, libraries and archives, journalism programs, civic and municipal groups, and companies deploying AI on their own document sets. Technical depth is set in advance to match the room.
- How do I book Robert Shumake for an AI keynote?
- Open a conversation through the contact route on this site with the event date, city, audience size, and format. Talks run from 30-minute keynotes to half-day workshops.
