About the Event
What happens to human reading when AI bots can do it for us? And what are the consequences for our thinking, learning, and engagement with the world?
Join us for a conversation with Naomi S. Baron, Professor Emerita of Linguistics at American University, as she discusses her new book Reader Bot: What Happens When AI Reads and Why It Matters. We’ll examine how AI’s ability to process and synthesize information is transforming our relationship with text at a time when human reading is already in decline. Drawing on her extensive research across print, screen, and audio formats, Baron will explore what we stand to gain and lose as we increasingly hand over this deeply human practice to machines, and why being thoughtful about this shift matters now more than ever.
Who's Speaking
Naomi Baron
Naomi Baron’s research interests include language and technology, reading, first language acquisition, the relationship between speech and writing, the history and structure of English, and higher education. A former Guggenheim Fellow, Fulbright Fellow, Fulbright Specialist, and Visiting Scholar at the Stanford Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, she...
Naomi Baron’s research interests include language and technology, reading, first language acquisition, the relationship between speech and writing, the history and structure of English, and higher education.
A former Guggenheim Fellow, Fulbright Fellow, Fulbright Specialist, and Visiting Scholar at the Stanford Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, she has published ten books. Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World won the English-Speaking Union’s Duke of Edinburgh English Language Book Award for 2008. Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World appeared in 2015. How We Read Now: Strategic Choices for Print, Screen, and Audio was published in March 2021.
Baron’s current research is on artificial intelligence, writing, and reading. Her book Who Wrote This? How AI and the Lure of Efficiency Threaten Human Writing, (Stanford University Press) appeared in 2023. Her forthcoming book (2026) is Reader Bot: What Happens When AI Reads and Why It Matters (Stanford University Press).
Baron taught at Brown University, Emory University, and Southwestern University before coming to American University, where she served in the College of Arts and Sciences as associate dean for undergraduate affairs, associate dean for curriculum and faculty development, chair of the Department of Language and Foreign Studies, and director of the TESOL Program. For six years, she was executive director of the university’s Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning. She has taught or been a visiting scholar at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), the University of Stavanger (Norway), the University of Zurich (Switzerland), and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy).
Professor Baron has appeared extensively in the media, including interviews on Good Morning America, ABC News 20/20, CNN, The Diane Rehm Show, All Things Considered, the BBC, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the New Yorker, Fortune, and Time.