🛡 E56. Jon Accarrino & Pete Blackshaw: Scrape Me?

Protect, Monetize & Optimize Content for AI Chatbots with Jon Accarrino & Pete Blackshaw

Creativity Squared: On Protecting, Monetizing and Optimizing Content for A.I. Chatbots

“There is so much hunger right now for data. The foundational LLMs, they’ve basically absorbed the known world at this point. And they still need more.”

-Jon Accarrino

Nudge, nudge: Click “Read Online” in the upper right-hand corner of this email so nothing gets truncated. ;)

Dear Creativity Squared Member,

Get ready for a special episode that explores the question: Do you allow the A.I. large language model (LLM) chatbots to freely scrape your content or not?

Whether you’re protecting your content or your brand’s reputation, you won’t want to miss this conversation! 🛡

In Episode 56, we’re featuring two experts with unique perspectives on this question — Jon Accarrino on how content creators and media publishers can protect and get compensated for their work and Pete Blackshaw on how brands can optimize their content for the A.I. chatbot answers for what he calls the “Prompted Moment of Truth.” 

Join this thought-provoking conversation that explores the intricate balance between harnessing A.I.'s potential and protecting content creators' rights. Jon and Pete discuss the disruption of traditional search engines by LLMs, the ethical implications of A.I.-generated content, and the pressing need for fair compensation models. 

Against the backdrop of a race to Artificial General Intelligence and the far-reaching consequences it could create across industries, Jon and Pete emphasize the importance of Responsible A.I. development, the value of human creativity, and the need for artists and brands to adapt their strategies in this new digital landscape.

From optimizing websites for A.I. discovery and rethinking analytics and revenue models to protecting content from being scraped and getting compensated through data marketplaces, Episode 56 offers tips and insights for navigating the complex intersection of A.I. and content consumption in our rapidly evolving digital world.

What’s the future of content creation and brand strategy in the age of A.I.?

Yesterday, I also had the honor to speak at Black Tech Week on the “Future of Communication with A.I. Clones,” and today, I’m in Minneapolis interviewing the speakers of Data 4 Public Good on A.I. and data justice for a special speaker series for the Twin City Innovation Alliance (and why the newsletter is hitting your inboxes a little later than normal).

Next weekend, I’ll be back in the Hudson Valley for Joanna Peña Bickley’s Future Frequencies Salon where I’ll be moderating a panel with Creativity Squared guests Cindy Gallop and Katie Trauth Taylor. Also, I’ll be doing my first-ever live podcast recording with Joanna (also a Creativity Squared guest in Episode 4) as my cohost. We’ll be interviewing Dinesh Maheshwari who’s a Humanist entrepreneur, Advisor to several startups, and Chief Technology Advisor at Groq. If you’re interested in attending, use this link for 20% off — it’s an intimate event and a few spots are left.

If you’re local in Cincinnati, you still can check out some of ArtsWave’s 2024 Black and Brown Artist Program grant recipients’ work featured in this year’s Truth & Innovation Showcase — see below. Stay tuned for another special three-part series with the artists that will start on July 25th.

Scroll on to discover:

  • 💛 Featured Blog Post: Cincinnati: The Heartbeat of Responsible A.I. in America's Midwest

  • 📆 Calendar of Events: A.I. Conferences & Events Radar

  • 🤯 A.I. + Creativity News Roundup

  • 🎧 More on Episode 56

  • 👯‍♀️ Apply to Join the Clone Club

  • 💎 Creativity Squared Premium Member Benefits

  • 💝 Milestone Rewards

  • ❤️‍🔥 Premium Members: Episode NFT

💛CREATIVITY SQUARED FEATURED BLOG POST

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

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

🙌SUPPORT CREATIVITY SQUARED & ARTSWAVE

🎨 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!

Here are three ways you can check out and support the ArtsWave Truth & Innovation artists:

🤩Be Still City-Wide AR Portrait Exhibition
🙌🏾   @i_woode
🗓  July 11 - September 22
📍   Outside the Aronoff Center for the Arts
🖥   http://BeStill24.com

🖼   The Visual Arts Exhibition
🙌🏾  @ehmomohara, @isitrevolutionn, @lisameridapaytes, @nawal.magh, @Saraherodriguez__
🗓   July 13 - August 8
📍   Clifton Cultural Arts Center 
🖥   https://artswave.org/truth

🤣Up the As*pirin: Pain Management, asketch comedy variety show
🙌🏾  @gashtronomy
🗓  July 26-27
⏰  8pm 
📍  Know Theatre of Cincinnati
🖥  https://knowtheatre.com/on-stage


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📆A.I. CONFERENCE & EVENTS RADAR

JULY 18-19 Data 4 Public Good, Minneapolis (Interviewing the Speakers)

AUGUST 6CincyAI Meetup, Cincinnati (Co-Host)

SEPTEMBER 4-6: MidwestCon, Cincinnati (Speaker)

SEPTEMBER 10-12: Marketing AI Conference (MAICON), Cleveland (Speaker)

NOVEMBER 20: Columbus AI Summit by OhioX, Columbus

Interested in having me speak at your event? Reach out!

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:

Technology Journalists Win Protections Against AIDecrypt — Journalists at Ziff Davis, which includes PCMag, Lifehacker, and Mashable, have secured a new contract that protects them from losing jobs or pay to generative A.I. The contract ensures a salary floor of $65,000 with annual raises, retroactive from April. An A.I. subcommittee will be formed to discuss and evaluate the use of AI technologies. This agreement prevents layoffs or pay cuts due to AI implementation and allows journalists to participate in decisions regarding AI's role in their work.

YouTubers Furious After Apple and Anthropic Steal Their Data to Train AIFuturismA dataset of YouTube subtitles was used without permission to train A.I. models, sparking outrage among creators. The dataset includes 173,536 videos from 48,000 channels. Prominent YouTubers like David Pakman and Dave Farina are demanding compensation and regulation. Google says it’s taking steps to prevent unauthorized scraping.

AI's Energy Demands Are Out of Control. Welcome to the Internet's Hyper-Consumption Era WIRED —  A.I. developers’s climate pledges are falling to the wayside as they chase more and more energy-intensive A.I. compute power. Google’s power consumption doubled between 1029 and 2023. While A.I. doesn't use as much energy as oil refining or transportation, in some cases, companies are overburdening local utility providers. Water usage as a coolant for data centers is another concern for environmentalists because the water does not recirculate as easily as bath and shower water. 

Google creates self-replicating life from digital 'primordial soup' New Scientist — Google researchers claim to have observed the rise of a digital lifeform, potentially offering clues about how the first organisms formed from elements in our universe. 

Swiss startup powers computers with mini human brainsYahoo News — A Swiss company is now selling brains on a chip, computer processors that use tiny lab-grown brains to crunch numbers. Currently available chips hold four brains but the company, FinalSpark, says they can fit up to 16 brain organoids on a chip. The new chips, called Neuroplatform, reportedly work faster and much more efficiently than traditional chips, offering a potential solution for the A.I. energy demand. 

Digital Doppelgangers: Instagram Tests Creator-Made AI ClonesForbes  — Meta platform creators will be able to generate digital clones of themselves for audience engagement, according to Mark Zuckerberg. Meta is targeting personalized engagement through A.I. characters as a growth channel for its A.I. roadmap. Access to Instagram’s generative “AI Studio” will open initially to only 50 creators. 

Hackers claim Disney data theft in protest against AI-generated artwork The Guardian — A group of online activists associated with the Furry cosplay community released volumes of Disney’s internal chat logs in a show of support for artists against A.I.-generated art. The group, called, NullBulge, released the chat logs almost immediately and without a ransom, although some experts question if the NullBulge’s claims are cover for a third party with different motives. 

Listen: Ep56. Scrape Me?
Discover How to Protect, Monetize & Optimize Content for LLM Chatbots with Jon Accarrino & Pete Blackshaw

“Everybody should have a right to be compensated.”

-Pete Blackshaw

Episode 56 features two guests — Jon Accarrino, an award-winning media executive recognized as the LMA's "Digital Innovator of the Year" for his transformative work leveraging media and emerging technologies, and Pete Blackshaw, founder and CEO of BrandRank.AI, a startup using A.I. to monitor brands across all major and emerging generative A.I. search engines.

Jon has pioneered new platforms and grown digital revenue for media leaders like NBC News, WRAL, and KSL; co-executive produced a Lionsgate horror film with Spike Lee; and won a Shorty Award for innovative HBO campaigns. Using his background and education from MIT’s A.I. strategy program and a GE Six Sigma Green Belt, Jon now guides brands to evolve through his media technology and A.I. strategy consultancy, Ordo Digital.

Pete is an author, Ad Age contributor, and award-winning marketer, who is recognized for innovation in marketing and consumer trust. Pete’s career trajectory began at Procter & Gamble, where he co-founded the first "Interactive Marketing" team and shortly thereafter, was recognized as "Interactive Marketer of the Year" by Ad Age. He also launched PlanetFeedback.com, was CMO at NM Incite, a collaborative venture between Nielsen and McKinsey, served as Global Head of Digital for Nestlé, and, most recently, led Cintrifuse as CEO. Pete holds an MBA from Harvard and continues to shape the intersection of consumer feedback, technology, and brand promise.

From optimizing websites for A.I. discovery and rethinking analytics and revenue models to protecting content from being scraped and getting compensated through data marketplaces, Episode 56 offers tips and insights for navigating the complex intersection of A.I. and content consumption in our rapidly evolving digital world.

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.

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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