Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-2026

Keywords

Artificial intelligence, community engagement, public science communication, large language models, creativity, imagination

Disciplines

Education | Engineering

Abstract

This report describes a community engagement project by the Youth STEAM Initiative (YSI) in conjunction with a public talk by Dr. Haixun Wang, “How AI Remembers, Imagines, and Creates,” held at the Cary Memorial Library in Lexington, Massachusetts. Prior to the talk, YSI collected questions and perspectives from community members through an online survey, gathering thirteen responses spanning students, parents, and professionals. This report summarizes the talk, themes that emerged from those responses, the community’s views on AI creativity, and reflections from the YSI team.

Comments

Free and open access to this work is made available to the UMass Boston community by ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. Those not on campus and those without a UMass Boston campus username and password may gain access to this work through Interlibrary Loan. If you have a UMass Boston campus username and password and would like to download this work from off-campus, click on the “Off-Campus Users” button.

Community Engaged/Serving

Part of the UMass Boston Community-Engaged Teaching, Research, and Service Series. //scholarworks.umb.edu/engage

Publisher

© 2026 The Authors

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