(video link)

Robin Sloan writes about artificial intelligence in his latest novel, Sourdough, but he has also been writing with help from AI, too. In the latest episode of Ars Technica Live, filmed before actual humans at Oakland bar Eli’s Mile High Club, I talked to Sloan about his work.

We started out by discussing how Sloan does his research, because Sourdough has some of the most accurate representations of robots you’ll find in a work of fiction. But it also has impeccably researched descriptions of how to make sourdough bread, which is a pretty interesting scientific process in itself. Sloan said he talked to several roboticist friends about his main character, who works as a software developer for robot arms. But he also incorporated his personal knowledge of San Francisco startup culture, as well as sourdough cultures. He has made sourdough bread himself, though he admitted it wasn’t particularly successful. Cooking has become a form of science, Sloan said, and developments in biotech have taken food into the laboratory.