Creativity Squared: On the Virtual Human Economy

Dear Creativity Squared Member,

It’s almost that magical time of the year when the who’s who of tech descends upon Austin, TX, for one of the largest tech conferences in the world to get a glimpse into what the future may hold. I’m already in the Lone Star state visiting family ahead of Friday’s first SXSW Interactive sessions. When I popped over to pick up my badge yesterday, I had the pleasure of running into Hugh Forrest, who’s the Co-President and Chief Programming Officer for SXSW, and also is a Creativity Squared guest — check out my interview with him in Episode 17 with SXSW’s Hugh Forrest: A.I. Hype Cycle or Not?

There’s an entire A.I. track next week and I’ll be soaking up as much as possible to share with you! Follow me on LinkedIn for daily updates.

Today’s interview with Natalie Monbiot has its origins at last year’s SXSW. She and I were in the same session together, but we only found out after the fact! She’ll be on a SXSW panel this year with another Creativity Squared guest, John du Pre Gauntt — check out our featured blog post for a curated list of Creativity Squared guests who’ll be on stage at SXSW this year!

Natalie has six virtual human twins of herself and is an emerging technology strategist and pioneer in virtual human and A.I. video technology.

As a founding team member and head of strategy at Hour One, she has helped to create the category from the ground up, from the vision to ethics to commercialization.

A leading voice in the industry, she has made the case for the “virtual human economy” in which real people profit from putting their virtual selves to work. Recently, she’s worked with Reid Hoffman to bring his A.I. virtual human twin to life. 

In today’s episode, discover the current landscape of the Virtual Human Economy and what lies ahead, including connecting virtual twins to their human counterpart’s own augmented intelligence and instances when people prefer interacting with virtual humans over real ones! We discuss everything from terminology, ethical considerations, and photorealism to imaginative use cases and the interoperability of virtual humans — even how one brand on Amazon is putting virtual humans to work for their product listings.

Join the conversation in Episode 39 as Natalie shares her passion for virtual humans and envisions how they can augment human capabilities — not replace us. 

How can you put your virtual human to work? Listen in to find out today! 

As I mentioned in previous newsletters, I’m also an official SXSW Mentor this year! Registration is open for my mentor session that’s taking place March 11 from 4-5:15 pm CT at the Hilton Austin Downtown in Room 400-402. RSVP is required. Sign-up today! 

If you’ll be in Austin, do let me know — would love to meet while I’m in town for SXSW. Just reply to this email, and I’ll see your response. Let me know what dates you’ll be there, and we’ll go from there.

Also, this past Tuesday’s CincyAI Meetup, which is the largest A.I. meetup in the Southeast Ohio region that I co-host with Kendra Rameriz in partnership with UC Digital Futures, had some big announcements. These included the launch of a new company BrandRank AI, 1000Zebra’s CincyAI marketplace, and GENEXIA’s incredible work in Cincinnati leveraging trustworthy A.I. to diagnose coronary artery disease risk during women's mammograms! Recently, the UC Office of Research featured an article on CincyAI sharing:

"Digital Futures' new partnership with CincyAI serves as a compelling illustration of how P3 (Public-Private Partnership) initiatives take shape, foster the advancement of new knowledge, and can lead to innovative solutions that can have lasting impact...

UC values its partnership with CincyAI and is committed to the growth of AI excellence in and around the greater Cincinnati community."

We embrace the mantra that the tide rises all ships when we collaborate towards a shared, better future!

Scroll on to discover:

• 🤠 Featured Blog Post: SXSW Preview: The Creativity Squared Curated People and Events We’re Excited For This Year

• 📆 Calendar of Events: A.I. Conference Radar + Cincy A.I. Events

• 🤯 A.I. + Creativity News Roundup

• 🎧 More on Episode 39

• 👯‍♀️ 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
linkedin / twitter / pinterest / instagram / threads
CreativitySquared.com
youtube / instagram / facebook / tiktok 
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! 

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

👍 AFFILIATE RECOMMENDATIONS

🐝 We use Beehiiv for this newsletter and Riverside for recording podcast episodes, and recommend them! Using these links also supports Creativity Squared, and we only recommend what we actually back!

🖥 Need a new website or the slightest of help on your current site? Check out e9 Digital — they created, and help us host and manage Creativity Squared’s website! They know how to make accessible websites which I love. Mention Creativity Squared for 20% off too!

📆 A.I. CONFERENCE RADAR

🤠 MARCH 8-15 SXSW — I’ll be back in Austin for SXSW in March for its Interactive Conference which starts on March 8, and will be staying for their A.I. track which is March 11-15. Let me know if you’ll be there — would love to say hi IRL! If you missed the episode with Hugh Forrest, SXSW Co-President & Chief Programming Officer, check it out here!

😎 APRIL 5-9: Texas Eclipse Festival — If you’re looking for A.I. events to attend next year, do add the Texas Eclipse Festival to your list! On April 8, 2024, there will be a total solar eclipse. The festival, taking place April 5-9 at Reveille Ranch in Burnet, TX (outside of Austin), will bring people together from all over the world to celebrate the 4 minutes of totality amidst music, immersive art, tech talks, wellness activations, and so much more.

I can’t wait to be on stage there to talk all things A.I., avatars, and synthetic media alongside so many talented people and artists, including Alex & Allyson Grey, Android Jones, and Chris Dyer.

📆 CALENDAR OF A.I. EVENTS: CINCY

For those local in Cincinnati, join these upcoming A.I. events. 🥳 

🤝 APRIL 16 CincyAI Meetup — Join me and others interested in all things A.I. at the CincyAI Meetup for Humans, cohosted by Creativity Squared, on Tuesday, April 16, at the UC Digital Futures building from 3-5pm ET. Sign up now!

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

📣 COMING SOON

The “OUR T2 REMAKE“ premiered in Hollywood on March 6, and they’re hosting an exclusive live stream on Saturday, March 9 at noon PT. For the live stream, you'll get a chance to chat and watch the film with the entire cast and crew! This event will take place online ONLY ONE TIME. Sign up for either event on their website: https://t2remake.com. I know I cannot wait to see this film!!!

If you missed the Creativity Squared interview with the two producers, Nem Perez and Sway Molina, and one of the A.I. video artists, Ben Nash, check it out here: https://creativitysquared.com/podcast/ep33-nem-perez-sway-molina-ben-nash-our-t2-remake 

With all of the A.I. updates flooding our feeds and screens, we’ve got you covered with the latest news at the intersection of A.I. and creativity.

Elon Musk sues OpenAI and Sam Altman over 'betrayal' of nonprofit AI mission TechCrunch — Elon Musk says that OpenAI has strayed too far from what he envisioned when he co-founded the company in 2015. Criticizing OpenAI’s public transparency and the company’s financial relationship with Microsoft, Musk claimed that OpenAI is too insulated and profit-driven to be trusted overseeing artificial general intelligence, which Musk believes OpenAI achieved with their mysterious Q model. 

Adobe announces new prototype AI tool for creating and editing audio The Verge  — Adobe is adding another piece to their suite of A.I. tools for creativity with Project Music GenAI Control. The prototype tool can generate music from text prompts or reference tracks. Unlike Google and Meta’s A.I. music generators, with Adobe’s tool users can edit the initial output to their liking. Project Music GenAI Control is not available to the public, and a release date hasn’t been announced. 

Microsoft Mocks NYT's AI Lawsuit As “Doomsday Futurology” Futurism — Microsoft is digging in its heels against a lawsuit from the New York Times. Shortly after OpenAI (also named in the lawsuit) moved to dismiss NYT’s claims about ChatGPT threatening the future of journalism, Microsoft lawyers submitted their own brief basically calling NYT a bunch of Luddites and accusing the paper of misleading the public about the merits of their lawsuit. 

Klarna CEO says AI can do the job of 700 workers. But job replacement isn't the biggest issue. CBS News — Klarna, which offers buy-now-pay-later options for e-commerce, says that the issue of A.I. replacing human workers is already happening. CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski recently shared data showing that their A.I. customer service agent can handle the workload of 700 humans. While he clarifies that nobody is or will be getting fired from Klarna (they outsource customer service operations), the data shows that time is running short to address how we will manage job automation. 

Microsoft engineer warns company's AI tool creates violent, sexual images, ignores copyrights CNBC — A Microsoft engineer is blowing the whistle on Microsoft’s Copilot Designer A.I. image generator. After informing Microsoft and getting no response, the whistleblower sent their concerns to the FTC. They warned that Copilot Designer generates images depicting teenagers with assault rifles, sexualized images of women in violent tableaus, and underage drinking and drug use, among other themes that violate Microsoft’s own Responsible A.I. policies.  

Researchers Develop New Technique to Wipe Dangerous Knowledge From AI Systems TIME —  Scale AI and the Center for AI Safety say their new methodology can reduce the risk of bad actors using an LLM to learn about bomb-making or computer hacking. With help from biologists, cybersecurity professionals, and other experts, researchers developed a questionnaire to gauge how much dangerous information an LLM has learned. Their method then traces that knowledge back to the source document(s) for deletion or editing. With a growing movement for open-model LLMs, this technology could mitigate the risks that closed-model advocates often argue. 

AI Companies Take Hit as Judge Says Artists Have “Public Interest” In Pursuing Lawsuits Hollywood Reporter — Independent artists notched a small win this week with a green light to pursue their landmark lawsuit against A.I. image generators. Defendants Midjourney and Stability AI tried to quash the suit by claiming that the artists were trying to suppress the companies’ right to free speech. A federal judge rejected that argument this week, saying that the lawsuit is a matter of public interest.

Listen: E39. GenAI & the Virtual Human Economy:
How Can You Profit from Your Virtual Self? Discover the Answer from Trailblazer Natalie Monbiot who has Helped Create the Category

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

As a trusted futurist, Natalie Monbiot excels at creating emerging technology roadmaps for companies like Samsung, and holds a strong track record in transformative brand strategies and growth for brands like BMW, Coca-Cola, and Spotify. She’s received award recognition for her work, including from Fast Company Next Big Things in Tech and Cannes Lions Gold. 

She’s also an active collaborator and advisor to startups, agency boards, and media publishers in addition to being a frequent keynote speaker and contributor to publications like WSJ and The Information. 

In today’s episode, discover the current landscape of the Virtual Human Economy and what lies ahead, including connecting virtual twins to their human counterpart’s own augmented intelligence and instances when people prefer interacting with virtual humans over real ones! We discuss everything from terminology, ethical considerations, and photorealism to imaginative use cases and the interoperability of virtual humans — even how one brand on Amazon is putting virtual humans to work for their product listings.

Join the conversation in Episode 39 as Natalie shares her passion for virtual humans and envisions how they can augment human capabilities — not replace us. 

How can you put your virtual human to work? Listen in to find out today! 

Apply to Join the Clone Club 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, by appointment that fits into your schedule. Digitally clone yourself to unlock streamlined and dynamic video content — Apply to be cloned 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!

Share the love of membership benefits. Current members, renew early or upgrade to annual to enjoy this sweet deal. Hurry, the offer ends soon.

Become a Premium Member to Unlock Exclusive Content and Claim Your NFT

Become a Premium Member to unlock exclusive content and to claim your NFTs of episode cover art!

At $10 per month or discounted to $100 for annual memberships, Premium Members enjoy other benefits too:

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

• Premium Member NFT

• First-Dibs at Event Invites

• Access to Monthly Exclusive Content (e.g. Helen’s Monthly Must-Know Video Report on the hottest A.I. news)

• Discounts from Creativity Squared Partners

• Thank You by Name in the Creativity Squared Newsletter

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.

Subscribe to Creativity Squared Premium Membership to read the rest.