"Dr. CyberLeo: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI," explores the evolving relationship between artificial intelligence and scholarly writing within the framework of cyborg writing—a concept that captures how our work is increasingly shaped by digital technologies like spell and grammar checkers, predictive keyboards, suggested texts, generative AI, and bespoke text-generation engines. This talk presents a framework for scholarly and creative writing built on six key principles—transparency, accuracy, source attribution, responsibility, originality, and quality—that ensure AI's integration into the research and writing process is both responsible and controlled by the human portion of the cyborg author. Attendees will learn how to navigate challenges such as AI-induced inaccuracies, biases, and plagiarism while embracing these tools as powerful collaborators in ideation and content creation, ultimately fostering a future where human ingenuity and technological innovation join forces to advance scholarly and creative endeavors.

About Professor Flores 

Professor Leonardo Flores is Chair of the English Department at Appalachian State University. His research areas are electronic literature, with a focus on e-poetry, digital writing, and the history and strategic growth of the field. He’s known for I ♥ E-Poetry, the Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 3, “Third Generation Electronic Literature” and the Antología Lit(e)Lat, Volume 1. He is a member of the MLA-CCCC Joint Task Force on AI and Writing and has offered numerous invited talks and workshops on AI and its impact on education, policy, scholarship, and creativity. For more information on his current work, visit leonardoflores.net.

This talk is hosted by the UMKC Libraries to foster a community of practice around using AI in scholarly and creative work and is supported by a Funding for Excellence grant from the Office of Research Services.