Creativity Squared: On Art, A.I. & Immortality

Dear Creativity Squared Member,

From reciting poems to thinking deeply about consciousness, art, and philosophy, I’m grateful to call Jason Schneider a dear friend and excited to share our thought-provoking conversation with you today.

Jason has built a long and prosperous career as a photographic journalist where he’s held numerous prestigious positions. He is perhaps best known as the writer and editor who created The Camera Collector column and rose through the ranks at Modern Photography magazine to become its Editorial Director. After leaving Modern, he became the Editor-in-Chief of Popular Photography, the world’s largest imaging magazine, a position he held for over 15 years.

Currently, Jason is a contributing writer for the Rangefinder Forum in addition to Creativity Squared. He’s also writing a book with the working title “Understanding Emily Dickinson: A Reader’s Guide To The Enlightened Master.”

I met Jason back in 2011 when my social media agency was launching and managing Leica Camera’s social media channels. We worked with Leica for over five years, and Jason was instrumental in writing questions and editing interviews for the Leica Camera Blog, which we also managed. We’ve been colleagues and friends ever since.

In Episode 23, Jason expands on the articles he’s written for Creativity Squared exploring A.I. and the question ‘What is art?’ You’ll also hear Jason’s perspective on human consciousness, art as representation, and the limitations of language and math.

You won’t want to miss why Jason is in awe of Emily Dickinson and hearing a few poems he recites, including one from his late and talented daughter Heidi.

Jason also points out what’s wrong with the premise of Descartes’s famous statement, “I think, therefore I am” and why cell phones are the best cameras ever made — check out Episode 23 today!

October is packed with a ton of A.I. events you won’t want to miss for those here in Cincinnati. 🥳

Next week, I’ll be on stage moderating an all-women panel on A.I. at the Elevate! Together Digital National Conference on October 12, 2023. Really excited about the conversation based on our precall yesterday! Anddd….as a valued Creativity Squared community member, you get an exclusive 25% discount on your ticket price — use code SPEAKERGUEST23 when registering.

After Elevate, can’t wait for the CincyAI Meetup for Humans, cohosted by Creativity Squared, on Tuesday, October 17, at the UC Digital Futures building from 3-5pm ET. Sign up now! 

Then Tuesday, October 24, is A.I. Avatars & Aperitifs followed by The Avatar Experience on October 25 & 26, coinciding with StartupCincy Week. Super excited to bring these events and the cutting-edge tech that digitally cloned me to Cincinnati. 🙌

Looking forward to meeting those who can make it in person and geeking out about all things A.I. and creativity!

Scroll on to discover:

• 🎧 More on Episode 23

• 🤯 A.I. + Creativity News Roundup

• 🤝 CincyAI Meetup for Humans

• 🍸 A.I. Avatars & Aperitifs

• 👯‍♀️ Digitally Clone Yourself! The Avatar Experience

• 💎 Creativity Squared Premium Member Benefits

• 💝 Milestone Rewards

We’re just getting started, and if you enjoy our content, I’d really appreciate it if you could share, review, like, subscribe, leave a comment, and help spread the word about Creativity Squared in whatever way you’re willing to. Your support is greatly appreciated, and the whole team looks forward to growing with your help. Thank you!

Here's to exponential possibilities!

Helen

Also Noteworthy:

🍸 Join A.I. Avatars & Aperitifs! Don’t miss this free happy hour and edu-taining event to learn about ethically created A.I. avatars and their creative and business use cases. It’ll take place on Tuesday, October 24, from 5-6:30pm at ADC Fine Art Gallery located at 1013 York St. Cincinnati, OH 45214. RSVP required — Sign up here!

🙋‍♀️ Want your own custom synthetic avatar? Creativity Squared is collaborating with our partner and sponsor, Render, to bring their avatar experience to Cincinnati, OH, on October 25 and 26, so anyone can digitally clone themselves. If you’re interested in this, sign up here.

🤝 Join me and others interested in all things A.I. at the CincyAI Meetup for Humans that will be on Tuesday, Oct. 17, from 3-5 pm at Digital Futures Building. Sign up now!

🐝 We use Beehiiv for this newsletter and Riverside for recording podcast episodes, and recommend them!

🎨 I want to live in a world where artists not only coexist with A.I., but thrive. And because it’s important to support artists, 10% of all revenue Creativity Squared generates goes to ArtsWave, a nationally recognized non-profit that supports over 150 arts organizations, projects, and independent artists. Consider becoming a Premium Member today! 

🚀 Interested in becoming a sponsor of Creativity Squared? Reach out!

Helen Todd (she/her)
Human behind Creativity Squared
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CreativitySquared.com
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How creatives are collaborating with A.I.

Listen: E23. Art, A.I. & Immortality
Explore the Human Urge to Create, Transcend Reality, and Express Consciousness with Creativity Squared Writer Jason Schneider

Apple | Spotify | YouTube | Pandora | Amazon | Google | SoundCloud | iHeart Radio

Jason is a true modern-day Renaissance man with passions that include photography, motorcycles, poetry, music, and philosophy. A self-admitted life-long Leica maniac, Jason is also a camera collector, fine art photographer, writer, and photojournalist.

In Episode 23, Jason expands on the articles he’s written for Creativity Squared exploring A.I. and the question ‘What is art?’ You’ll also hear Jason’s perspective on human consciousness, art as representation, and the limitations of language and math. You won’t want to miss why Jason is in awe of Emily Dickinson and hearing a few poems he recites, including one from his late and talented daughter Heidi.

Here are links to his articles:

Check out the full conversation with Jason and the accompanying blog post for Episode 23 today.

Your A.I. + Creativity News Roundup

With all of the A.I. news flooding our feeds and screens, we’ve got you covered. News to check out includes:

• Designer Jony Ive and OpenAI’s Sam Altman Discuss AI Hardware Project The Information (Subscribe with 25% off to support us) — Apple alums in A.I. are lining up to work with Microsoft’s A.I. partner. The legendary designer of the iPhone is reportedly in talks with Sam Altman to develop hardware designed around artificial intelligence. OpenAI is already collaborating with the wearable A.I. startup founded by ex-Apple employees, Humane, to share technology. The CEO of Japan’s SoftBank is also reportedly involved in talks with Altman and Ive.

• How to Use ChatGPT’s New Image Features Wired — Here’s an independent review/ how-to guide on ChatGPT’s new capabilities for multimodal interaction, announced by OpenAI last week. The features won’t be released publicly until later this Fall, but this early glimpse shows ChatGPT correctly identifying various input images, and mostly obeying its guardrails against ID’ing real people and discussing adult content.

• Meta adds a human element to AI, while others warn it all could be too 'human like' Digiday — Among a slew of announcements at their annual developer conference last week, Meta unveiled their Meta AI chatbot along with a digital studio where users can create their own chatbots. Thanks to licensing deals, the company is also offering chatbots designed to mimic celebrities like Tom Brady and Mr. Beast. Critics worry that automated influencer marketing could harm unsuspecting consumers.

• Can David Salle Teach A.I. How to Create Good Art? The New York Times — The renowned multi-stylistic painter’s newest apprentice is a purpose-built A.I. image generator. With help from computer scientists, Salle is experimenting to see if the A.I. can learn his style to create something new and noteworthy. As the A.I. learns, it’s proven a valuable tool for iterating ideas.

• HAND scales talent identity in a human and digital world IdentityWeek — An identity technology startup promises to offer an A.I.-based certificate of authenticity to help celebrities and others with valuable personal brands to help monetize their likeness. HAND (Human and Digital) CEO, Will Kreth, says that digital provenance will rely on a system of “linked-data citations” from reliable sources, claiming that the system will work with an ISO identifier registration authority to keep tabs on information quality.

• Mistral AI makes its first large language model free for everyone TechCrunch — A French generative A.I. startup is hoping to counterbalance U.S. tech advancements and lead the world in developing open-source A.I. models. The company raised $113 million this summer and just released a modest chatbot similar in capability to Meta’s Llama 2, and similarly free to download and run locally for commercial or other purposes. They’re planning to release a commercial ‘whitebox’ version that would enable customers to customize everything including training data and internal weightings.

• Google unveils Pixel 8 built for ‘the generative AI era’ CNN — The world’s first smartphone featuring built-in A.I. is here. Visually, the Pixel 8 is almost identical to its predecessor. Inside though, the new T3 Tensor chip is powering a revamped software package with new features for photo editing, and an upgraded Google Assistant. Will A.I. functionality be enough to chip away at Apple and Samsung’s smartphone market share?

CincyAI Meetup for Humans
Hot Off the Press with Our First Event

🤝 Join Creativity Squared at the first CincyAI Meetup where we share the amazing things people are doing in A.I. in our community and collaborate with others.

📅 October 17
3-5 pm
UC Digital Futures Building, Room 140
Free. Seating is limited.

🙋‍♀️ Sign up now!

🌟 Who Should Attend?
A.I. Enthusiasts
A.I. Leaders
A.I. Engineers
A.I. Artists
Anyone A.I.-Cuious!

🚀 This isn't just an event; it's the start of a vibrant, supportive community. At CincyAI, we believe in the power of collective wisdom to drive the A.I. revolution forward. Don't miss your chance to be a part of this dynamic community where the whole is not just greater, but exponential in its impact.

🙌 This is cohosted by Kendra Ramirez (KR Digital Agency) and Helen Todd (CreativitySquared.com), and sponsored by MAX Technical Training.

Can’t make it in October? Sign up for our next one, taking place Tuesday, November 14, from 3-5 pm at Digital Futures Building.

You’re Invited:
A.I. Avatars & Aperitifs

🍸 Join this free happy hour and edu-taining event to learn about ethically created A.I. avatars and their creative and business use cases. It’ll take place on Tuesday, October 24, from 5-6:30pm at ADC Fine Art Gallery located at 1013 York St. Cincinnati, OH 45214. RSVP required — Sign up here!

Digitally Clone Yourself!
The Avatar Experience Cincinnati

👯‍♀️ Ready to be digitally cloned? Get your own custom synthetic avatar! Creativity Squared is collaborating with our partner and sponsor, Render, to bring The Avatar Experience to Cincinnati, OH, on October 25 and 26 at ADC Fine Art Gallery (1013 York St. Cincinnati, OH 45214). Digitally clone yourself to unlock streamlined and dynamic video content — Book your cloning appointment today!

There are less than a thousand known hyper-realistic custom synthetic avatars in existence, so participants will be at the forefront of this groundbreaking A.I. technology. Custom synthetic avatars are part of a massive and growing digital avatar market and is projected to be $270B by 2030.

Custom synthetic avatars can be used for creating:

• Dynamic online course instruction

• Streamlined SEO video production of blog or audio-only content

• Turnkey social media and email marketing video content

• Engaging customer service messaging

• And more!

👯‍♀️ In case you missed the announcement, I’ve digitally cloned myself! Learn all about mine in episode E14. Not Deepfaked! I Cloned Myself. You’ll meet Helen 2.ODD, my digital double, and discover why and how I made my A.I.-created custom synthetic avatar.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Thank You to Render

Creativity Squared is supported by Render which provides Digital Likeness solutions for personal brand businesses, thought leaders, influencers, and business leaders who want to leverage their synthetic, A.I.-powered Likeness to communicate more effectively online and create audio and video content from anywhere without going on camera. Learn more by visiting: https://rendermedia.ai.

Interested in partnering with Creativity Squared? Reach out!

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• $1 per month (or $10 per year) to ArtsWave

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There is also a VIP Founding Member tier for those who want lifetime first dibs and access to Creativity Squared content, events, and whatever we dream up!

Because it’s important to support artists, 10% of all revenue Creativity Squared generates will go to ArtsWave, a nationally recognized non-profit that supports over 100 arts organizations.

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