Creativity Squared: On A.I. and Data Justice

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Dear Creativity Squared Member,

What can the making of a Marvel movie teach us about designing a better future? How can we keep our kids safe in school without restricting their growth? And how will individuals and societies adapt our ways of living? Will A.I. deliver us to a greater quality of life or drag us along toward a more efficient status quo? 

For the 61st episode, Creativity Squared is releasing part two of our partnership with the Twin Cities Innovation Alliance (TCIA). This special three-part data justice series is intended to invite the audience to reimagine our relationship with the future.

TCIA is a coalition of cross sector stakeholders building and developing problem-solving ecosystems in collaboration with communities.

These interviews feature the distinguished speakers from TCIA’s 2024 conference, Data 4 Public Good (D4PG), which I am very grateful to have been a part of this year.

D4PG taps into the collective power of community-based changemaking through technology, democracy, and justice.

The timely and important themes from these interviews include co-powering, digital justice, data privacy, A.I. in education, Afrofuturism, and the power of narrative for social change.

Today’s episode guests in part two include…

• Dr. Walter Greason - Professor & Distinguished Chair Of History, Macalester College

• Ruth Idakula - Program Director, Dignity In Schools

• Liz Sullivan-Yuknis - Co-Executive Director at Partners for Dignity and Rights

• Dr. Tanya Clark - Senior Assistant Professor, English Department, Morehouse College

• Dr. Eric Solomon - Founder & CEO, The Human OS

  Whether you’re a parent, community member, creator, designer, or just somebody who values their work-life balance, the conversations hold powerful insights for navigating the uncertainties unfolding before us — enjoy! And if you missed last week's part one, be sure to catch up here.

Check out Episode 61 today!

Scroll on to discover:

• 👩‍💻 Featured Blog Post: Future Frequencies Salon All Female Panel on A.I. Transcript

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

• 🤯 A.I. + Creativity News Roundup

• 🎧 More on Episode 61

• 👯‍♀️ Apply to Join the Clone Club

• 💎 Creativity Squared Premium Member Benefits

• 💝 Milestone Rewards

• ❤️‍🔥 Premium Members: Episode NFT

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.

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🎨 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!

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📆 A.I. CONFERENCE & EVENTS RADAR

SEPTEMBER 4-6: MidwestCon, Cincinnati (Speaker)

SEPTEMBER 10-12: Marketing AI Conference (MAICON), Cleveland (Speaker) - Use Code “Todd100” for $100 Off!

SEPTEMBER 17: CincyAI Meetup, Cincinnati (Co-Host)

SEPTEMBER 17-19: Columbus AI Week, Columbus (Speaker)

OCTOBER 7-10: StartupCincy Week 2024, Cincinnati (Speaker)

OCTOBER 8: CincyAI Meetup, Cincinnati (Co-Host)

OCTOBER 17: Illuminate: Together Digital National Conference (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:

Fake celebrity endorsements become latest weapon in misinformation wars, sowing confusion ahead of 2024 election CNN Business — Donald Trump’s been caught once again (second time in two weeks) peddling misinformation with the help of artificial intelligence. This week, he shared a doctored photo appearing to show Taylor Swift fans supporting him, captioning the image with “I accept!” Once again, Trump pleaded ignorance when told that the images were fake, yet some see the cases as a tactic to sow doubt among voters. It’s not just Trump’s campaign. The News Literacy Project has cataloged over 500 cases of A.I.-generated election misinformation, including faked images of Ryan Reynolds wearing a Harris campaign shirt and a fake endorsement of Joe Biden by the Communist Party USA. 

Authors sue Anthropic for training AI using pirated books The Verge — Anthropic is facing claims that it trained its Claude LLM chatbots by “stealing hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books.” It’s the latest lawsuit associated with “The Pile,” a massive dataset of online content including transcripts of Youtube videos and a library of pirated eBooks. Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and the company that manages the Pile, EleutherAI, are all facing similar copyright lawsuits. 

OpenAI and Condé Nast Ink Multi-Year Deal to Serve News Through AI Decrypt — Condé Nast, which publishes Wired, The New Yorker, GQ and Vogue among a wide portfolio of publications, is selling its content to train OpenAI’s models and allow the chatbot to include the publisher’s IP in it’s responses. The value of the deal and other terms were not disclosed. Condé Nast now joins a host of fellow publishers like Financial Times and News Corp that are making deals with A.I. developers rather than taking them to court. 

This system can sort real pictures from AI fakes — why aren’t platforms using it? The Verge — Tech companies have already come up with the solution for identifying A.I.-generated images, but adoption has been slow because platforms are still catching up. Content credentials are durable metadata built into an image that indicate whether it was A.I.-generated or not. The C2PA standard and the Content Authenticity Initiative’s (CAI) metadata solutions both work well, but the rest of the tech infrastructure to support their use is still missing. CAI’s Senior Director, Andy Parsons, spoke at length about content credentials in C2 Ep.7. 

‘It looks so real’: amid rise in financial sextortion, Childline is helping teenagers fight back | Internet safety The Guardian — In Britain, a group that helps child victims of sextortion scams says they’re seeing more cases of kids being blackmailed for money with fake A.I.-generated nude images of themselves. Sextortion scammers who trick teens into sending nude images and then threaten to send them to the victim’s family and friends are not new. But now with A.I., kids are getting blackmailed even if they don’t send any images of themselves. In some cases, scammers use Instagram photos of the victim’s bedroom or other details to make the image more convincing. 

OpenAI’s opposition to California’s AI bill ‘makes no sense,’ says state senator TechCrunch — OpenAI opposes an A.I. bill in the California statehouse, arguing that it would stifle innovation and push A.I. companies out of California. The bill’s sponsor says that the rules would apply to any company doing business in the state, not just to the ones headquartered there. OpenAI says it favors a comprehensive federal law to regulate A.I. companies.  California’s bill, SB 1047, would make A.I. developers financially liable if their model is used to cause “critical harms” like cyberattacks. Silicon Valley trade groups, venture capitalist firms, A.I. researchers, and even California’s Federal Representatives also oppose the bill. 

Procreate defies AI trend, pledges “no generative AI” in its illustration app Ars Technica — One of the most popular digital illustration apps for iPad commits to never introducing generative A.I. features in a nod to artists’ intellectual property rights. Procreate said in a website post that, “generative AI is ripping the humanity out of things." The announcement drew mixed reactions. Artists concerned with losing their livelihood to A.I. praised the decision. Previous C2 guest and A.I. -assisted artist, Claire Silver, who uses A.I. as an accessibility tool, defended A.I. tools saying that they boost traditional art skills. 

Listen: Ep61. Data Justice, A.I. & Reimagining our Future Part 2
with Data 4 Public Good Speakers #D4PG 

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

“The way that technology has been used in schools has, for the most part, been harmful to children. It's contributed to pushouts for children being suspended and expelled from schools. We found that it's also impacted students and children mentally.”

– Ruth Idakula

Today, we are releasing part two of our special three-part series! Episode 61 of Creativity Squared continues the dive into the Data 4 Public Good conference, where you’re invited to reimagine the future through the lens of A.I. and data justice.

If you missed last week’s part one, be sure to catch up on Episode 60 as well!

Today’s featured speakers include:

• Dr. Walter Greason - Professor & Distinguished Chair Of History, Macalester College

• Ruth Idakula - Program Director, Dignity In Schools

• Liz Sullivan-Yuknis - Co-Executive Director at Partners for Dignity and Rights

• Dr. Tanya Clark - Senior Assistant Professor, English Department, Morehouse College

• Dr. Eric Solomon - Founder & CEO, The Human OS

Mark Your Calendars

To participate in the “Data Justice Week of Action” taking place September 16-20, 2024 visit: https://www.tciamn.org/data-justice-futures

Also, mark your calendars for July 15-20, 2025 when the D4PG conference will return to Macalester College in the Twin Cities. Sign up for TCIA’s newsletter so you don’t miss the opportunity to join next year: https://www.tciamn.org/d4pg

Check out Episode 61 today!

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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