Creativity Squared: On Prompts & Processes

Dear Creativity Squared Member,

Today is the 40th episode of Creativity Squared! 🥳

From classroom teacher to A.I.-collaborative author, meet J. Thorn in Episode 40’s ‘From A.I. Prompts to Process.’ 

J. is an independent publisher and author who has published more than two million words and sold more than 185,000 books worldwide.

J. recently released the Self-Paced Online Course — Content Marketing with ChatGPT: The Definitive Content Creation Blueprint. He created it to boost your content marketing strategy with the power of artificial intelligence.

In today's episode, J. shares how in April 2023 ChatGPT-4 changed the trajectory of his Amazon book sales and his ah-ha moment for GenAI’s impact on publishing and beyond. Discover J.'s prompt to process and innovative role-playing approaches to co-writing with A.I. We also discuss the publishing industry’s landscape pre- and post-GenAI, how A.I. is enabling greater accessibility for writers, and the need to support all writers and stop review bombing. We discuss the potential impact of A.I. on the entertainment industry as we know it, the importance of teaching responsible A.I. use in the classroom, how creators can leverage digital books, and the need for kindness and empathy as we navigate this new creative landscape.

He has expanded my approach on how to interact with A.I. and I couldn’t be more excited to share our fascinating and thought-provoking conversation with you. 

How can you harness the power of A.I. to unleash your creativity? Check out Episode 40 to find out!

I’m writing from SXSW, the mecca of all things tech, creativity, and what the future holds. I’m on day 7 and staying longer than usual for the A.I. track that’s taking place ALL week as there’s so much content around artificial intelligence! I’ll be doing a recap for next week’s newsletter, so stay tuned. One must-watch session that’s already on YouTube is the one and only futurist Amy Webb’s SXSW Tech Trends Report presentation. Her keynote is always a favorite and an incredible glimpse into the future:

On stage, she shared:

“The wave of innovation that’s coming is so intense, it’s so potent, and so pervasive, it will literally reshape our human existence in ways that I think are exciting, good, and absolutely terrifying.”

“The technology supercycle is here, and it’ll change the course of human history... we don’t have to submit, we don’t have to give up our agency.”

The full report is available on Future Today Institute’s website: https://futuretodayinstitute.com/trends/.

Still processing all she shared, but one thing is for certain: we have a lot to do to collectively co-create the future we all want to live in.

Scroll on to discover:

• 💻 Featured Blog Post: Three Ways to Start Writing Collaboratively with A.I. Today

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

• 🤯 A.I. + Creativity News Roundup

• 🎧 More on Episode 40

• 👯‍♀️ 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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📆 A.I. CONFERENCE RADAR

😎 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!

🤝 APRIL 16 Maker’s Mark ‘Makers + Mixers’ — After our April 16 Meetup, there will be another Makers + Mixers happy hour taking place from 5:30pm - 7:30pm across the street at the iconic 1819 building. This happy hour is proudly sponsored by Maker’s Mark and is brought to you by CincyAI community partners MidwestCon and Disrupt Now with Rob Richardson at the helm. RSVP for this here! 

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

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.

Google Is Getting Thousands of Deepfake Porn Complaints WIRED — Online safety advocates are calling on Google to punish website that host nonconsensual deepfake pornography by removing them from search results. Google received over 10,000 complaints about deepfake pornography hosted on a handful over the last few weeks. Google takes down over 80 percent of materials cited in complaints. 

Kate Middleton and the End of Shared Reality The Atlantic— Where in the world is Kate Middleton? Internet sleuths and A.I. are fuelling a conspiracy theory that Kate Middleton is either dead or recovering from major surgery because the public hasn’t seen her in months. The theories grew more legs this week on suspicions that the Royal Family used A.I. editing to make an older picture of Middleton look more recent. The saga highlights how vulnerable truth can be without tools to authenticate image provenance. 

World’s first major act to regulate AI passed by European lawmakers CNBC — The European Union officially became the global leader in A.I. regulation yesterday by finalizing foundational legislation. The EU’s framework assigns models into categories according to risk, requiring more oversight as risk increases. Focus now turns to implementation as public and private sectors hammer out how compliance will be enforced. 

Cognition emerges from stealth to launch AI software engineer Devin VentureBeat — A new A.I. model backed by tech financier Peter Thiel can reportedly build full software demos from a text prompt. A.I. development company, Cognition, says that their engineering model can handle thousands of individual tasks, far outpacing what existing coding assistants like Github’s can offer. This news comes just weeks after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s prediction that today’s youth won’t need to know how to code to build tomorrow’s software with GenAI. 

AI image-generator Midjourney blocks images of Biden and Trump as election looms PBS Newshour — Midjourney is putting its foot down against generating misleading political images. CEO David Holz indicated the block on images of presidential candidates will be temporary, as the company doesn’t want to constantly police political speech. 

SXSW Audiences Loudly Boo Festival Videos Touting the Virtues of AI Variety — A handful of A.I. evangelists got a reality check at SXSW on Tuesday from an unimpressed audience of film and TV enthusiasts. Head of ChatGPT, Peter Deng, reportedly took the brunt of audience disapproval after announcing that “A.I. fundamentally makes us more human.” Other speakers caught heat for telling the audience to embrace A.I. instead of getting “run over” by it. SXSW 2024 closes on Saturday.

Listen: E40. From A.I. Prompts to Process:
How ChatGPT-4 & GenAI is Impacting Writers from A.I. Author, Editor & Independent Publisher J. Thorn

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

Episode 40 features J. Thorn, an independent publisher and author who has published more than two million words, sold more than 185,000 books worldwide, and is an official member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the Horror Writers Association, and the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers.

J. also authors the Creative AI Digest, a newsletter about the intersection of A.I. and creativity, delivering a humorous and wise perspective for experienced creative professionals.

He also recently the Self-Paced Online Course — Content Marketing with ChatGPT: The Definitive Content Creation Blueprint. He created it to boost your content marketing strategy with the power of artificial intelligence.

Co-founder of the Writers, Ink podcast with J.D. Barker, J. has interviewed some of today's most successful authors including Matthew McConaughey, James Patterson, Dean Koontz, Seth Godin, Joyce Carol Oates, Chuck Palahniuk, and many more.

J. earned a B.A. in American History from the University of Pittsburgh and a M.A. from Duquesne University. He is a husband, father, full-time writer, and a part-time professor at John Carroll University.

In today's episode, J. shares how in April 2023 ChatGPT-4 changed the trajectory of his Amazon book sales and his ah-ha moment for GenAI’s impact on publishing and beyond. Discover J.'s prompt to process and innovative role-playing approaches to co-writing with A.I. We also discuss the publishing industry’s landscape pre- and post-GenAI, how A.I. is enabling greater accessibility for writers, and the need to support all writers and stop review bombing. We discuss the potential impact of A.I. on the entertainment industry as we know it, the importance of teaching responsible A.I. use in the classroom, how creators can leverage digital books, and the need for kindness and empathy as we navigate this new creative landscape.

How can you harness the power of A.I. to unleash your creativity? Check out Episode 40 to find out!

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!

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