Creativity Squared: The Dream Begins

Dear Creativity Squared Member -

Today is the day!! Creativity Squared is officially dropping our first interview with the wildly talented Harry Yeff. Harry is a world-renowned beatboxer and voice technologist who collaborates with artificial intelligence to push his own craft…and the zeitgeist on how we can use these tools to become more human. His obsession with self-development started at age seven when he competed with an A.I. chess board before becoming a tournament champion. He’s now pioneering the visualization and expression of voice across technology and mediums, including with his Bell Labs “Second Self” and digital VOICE GEMS projects. For Harry, digital can be spiritual and he reminds us of the function of art as ceremony to amplify the things that we love and hope for.

Harry shared so many thought-provoking perspectives that were fascinating to hear, and I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did!

In working on this show, the team loved the theme song so much we made a full composition and visualizer of “Creativity Squared: The Dream Begins” on Instagram and YouTube. Ahead of the launch of episode 1 with Harry, we also released Meet Helen Todd: Your Host and the Human Behind Creativity Squared so you can get to know me and also a sneak peek of what’s in store.

The intention of Creativity Squared is to be an active participant in the conversation and ignite our collective imagination at the intersection of A.I. and creativity to envision a world where artists thrive.

I’d love to hear from you so don’t be shy to reply to this email, and let me know your feedback and any person or topic at the intersection of creativity and A.I. you’d like for us to explore on this platform.

We’re just getting started and am so excited to share with you everything the team and I have been working on. Please share, review, like, subscribe, comment, and help spread the word in whatever way you’re willing to — I appreciate your support from the bottom of my heart.

Here's to exponential possibilities!

Helen

Helen Todd (she/her)
Human behind Creativity Squared
linkedin / twitter / pinterest / instagram
https://CreativitySquared.com
How creatives are collaborating with A.I.

Listen: Ep1. My Second Self
Discover How World-Renowned Beatboxer & Voice Technologist Harry Yeff Collaborates with A.I.

“I remain optimistic. I think we must tread very, very carefully. But I think there will be mutations in new whole new expressions of art. Like there are things coming that people are just visually and sensorially not ready for, and have never ever happened before…I really believe that and I'm so excited for for those mutations.”

Listen to the full interview with Harry Yeff aka Reeps One today for more of his amazing insights and perspective on how he collaborates and thinks about artificial intelligence.

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Watch: The A.I. Dilemma
“We can still choose the future we want.”

Last night before the official launch of Creativity Squared, I was winding down and watched The A.I. Dilemma with Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin. They’re the Co-Founders of the Center for Humane Technology (CHT), the group behind the film The Social Dilemma. Tristan is a tech ethicist and CHT believes that by understanding the root causes of harmful technology, we can work together to build a more humane future.

It was a sobering watch and certainly made me reflect on what I’m jumping into. That said, the intention behind Creativity Squared is to be an active participant in the conversation around this technology to ignite our collective imagination at the intersection of A.I. and creativity to envision a world where artists thrive.

While Tristan and Aza do offer hope that there’s still time to choose the future we want, they also lay out the grave concerns they have with A.I. going unchecked and being frantically released into the public’s hands in a corporate-drive A.I. race.

In the talk (which took place before the release of GPT-4), they discussed:

• How existing A.I. capabilities already pose catastrophic risks to a functional society

• How A.I. companies are caught in a race to deploy as quickly as possible without adequate safety measures

• What it would mean to upgrade our institutions to a post-A.I. world

Although I’m truly excited for how these tools will open up human creativity in ways we can’t even fathom yet, we have to decide how we’re collectively going to step forward. So we create responsibly…and have this tech work for us and not against the betterment of society.

In-the-Know: HER
A.I. is the Race for Intimacy

Social media vies for your engagement, and A.I. is vying for your intimacy. We’ve all seen how social media can put a spotlight on the worst of society through hyper-polarization by tapping into people’s strongest emotion: fear. Tristan and Aza pointed out in their presentation, that this next wave of technology wants something just as primal: our intimacy.

Enter the movie Her. Anyone who’s dipped their toes in playing with Chat GPT or similar A.I. chatbots uses the film as a reference point to describe the experience. An experience that feels like you’re talking to a human — almost.

The 2013 film is a science-fiction romantic drama directed by Spike Jonze. The story takes place in a near-future Los Angeles and follows a lonely and introverted man named Theodore Twombly (played by Joaquin Phoenix), who develops a romantic relationship with an artificial intelligence operating system named Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). As Theodore falls deeper in love with Samantha, he must confront the challenges of having a relationship with an operating system and dealing with his own emotional baggage. The film explores themes of love, connection, and what it means to be human in a technologically advanced world.

As sci-fi is quickly becoming reality, I recommend watching this film as a reference point about how intimacy can be fostered through our relationships with this technology…and also be in-the-know when the film is mentioned, which is all the time in the A.I. space!

As much as it is thought-provoking and timely, it’s also a beautifully made and engaging film. I hope you enjoy rediscovering the film, or perhaps watching it for the first time.

Thank You to Sociality Squared

Creativity Squared is brought to you by Sociality Squared, a social media agency who understands the magic of bringing people together around what they value and love: http://socialitysquared.com

Interested in partnering with Creativity Squared, reach out!

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