Creativity Squared: On A.I., Worldbuilding & the Future of Gaming

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Dear Creativity Squared Member,

I’m back in Cincy from the MIT A.I. Summit and still working on the blog post for ya on all the major takeaways. I was one of 2,000 attendees and the day was JAM-PACKED with presentations from 180 speakers.

Almost every major player in A.I. was represented on stage — from OpenAI to Google to Liquid AI, Perplexity, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Intel, Stability AI, Adobe, Groq, Narratize, Vibes Ai, and more!

In today’s Episode 46, you’ll meet Rudi Bonaparte who’s driving innovation at Riot Games, the gaming studio that created the iconic ‘League of Legends’ which is the most-played PC game in the world.

Charged with a new task in his role, Rudi ensures that Riot Games not only designs the most player-focused gaming experiences in the world, but is also the best and most creative place to develop these games.

A.I. has many implications for gaming which sits at the intersection of technology, art, and entertainment.

In today’s conversation, Rudi discusses the state of the gaming industry, from the economic realities to the exciting possibilities of innovation emerging from recent disruption. Rudi shares his perspective on A.I, gaming, and IP along with how Hollywood and gaming are converging.

We also explore gaming as a testbed for ideas that could shape society, what Rudi would build into a virtual environment to nurture the best of humanity, and the lessons that in-game currency and incentive structures hold for the real world. We also touch on some of Rudi's favorite works of speculative fiction and why he believes the future will be brighter than many imagine.

Are we in a gaming simulation and don’t know it? Listen in to find out!

Check out Episode 46 today!

Stay tuned for more of my takeaways after being on stage with Professor De Kai at the Texas Eclipse Festival and attending the MIT A.I. Summit.

Also, it was super exciting to see Creativity Squared get a shout-out in AdAge for my interview with the A.I.-reimagined Salvador Dalí!

Scroll on to discover:

• 🏰 Featured Blog Post: A Second Chance at Second Life and a Digital Third Space

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

• 🤯 A.I. + Creativity News Roundup

• 🎧 More on Episode 46

• 👯‍♀️ 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 & EVENTS RADAR

APRIL 26-28 Future Frequences Retreat, Newburgh, NY (Attendee)

MAY 2 Rotary Club of Cincinnati Corporate Member Roundtable on AI, Cincinnati (Speaker)

MAY 7 CincyAI Meetup, Cincinnati (Co-Host)

MAY 7 ‘Makers + Mixers’ Happy Hour, Cincinnati (Community Partner)

MAY 16 INERTIA: The AI Summit for Non-technical Leaders, Cincinnati (Speaker)

JULY 16-18 Black Tech Week, Cincinnati (Speaker)

JULY 18-19 Data 4 Public Good, Minneapolis (Attendee)

SEPTEMBER 5 & 6: MidwestCon, Cincinnati (Speaker)

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

Interested in having me speak at your event? Or recording podcast episodes of your speakers? Reach out!

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.

Drake Uses AI Tupac and Snoop Dogg Vocals on 'Taylor Made Freestyle,' References Taylor Swift's New Album Variety —  Drake released a diss track on Friday featuring A.I.-generated vocals of west-coast hip-hop legends to goade Kendrick Lamar further into an ongoing beef between the two rap icons. On “Taylor Made Freestyle,” Drake uses the voices of Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg to question Kendrick’s street credentials and needle him into escalating the beef further. Music critics speculate that Drake wrote and rapped the lyrics, using A.I. to overlay Snoop and Tupac’s voices.  

Llama 3 launches alongside new stand-alone Meta AI chatbot VentureBeat — Within days of release, Meta’s latest update to their open-source LLM is getting rave reviews with some saying Llama 3 marks a turning point in the competition between proprietary and open-source GenAI. And that’s just the response to Llama’s small and medium-size models; Meta is still training a 400 billion parameter model with a release date TBD. Meanwhile it’s begun integrating Llama 3 into its social platforms, planting the seeds for widespread A.I. adoption. 

Adobe’s new Firefly model makes it easier to use Photoshop’s AI tools The Verge —  The new version 3 of Adobe’s Firefly generative image A.I., which is free to try online, adds reference images and other features to streamline A.I. image editing and creation. Users can now skip the endless prompts by submitting an image as inspiration for the GenAI, as long as the user has permission for the reference image. Reference images won’t enter Firefly’s training data, and the company plans to offer a metadata tag that creators can put on images they don’t want to be used as reference material. 

Boston Dynamics’ new humanoid moves like no robot you’ve ever seen Ars Technica — Boston Dynamics shows the world their new electric-powered version of humanoid “Atlas” robot, shortly after bidding a public farewell to Atlas’s viral predecessor. The changing of the robo-guard marks a significant industry transition to electric motors, which will make for more reliable, independent, and adaptable robots. 

Apple Working on On-Device LLM for Generative AI Features MacRumors — A prominent Apple beat journalist reports that Apple’s planning to run its (unannounced, unreleased) future LLM model locally on iPhone instead of through the cloud. Apple reportedly acquired a European company to help build a device capable of the workload. Running the LLM locally would offer consumers privacy and performance benefits.  

A popular YouTuber's negative video of Humane's AI Pin raises questions about critical reviews in the age of innovation Business Insider — As we approach a new golden age for consumer tech innovation, a prominent tech reviewer with over 18 million subscribers, known as MKBHD, offered a case study in the dynamics of modern product development with his viral review of a much-hyped A.I. device. The episode also raised questions about independent influencers’ power to make or break a new product, though in this case MKBHD’s review aligned with the broader consensus from other reviewers. 

Robots can make jobs less meaningful for human colleagues TechCrunch  —  A new report from the Brookings Institution warns that robot-adopting firms have to make conscious efforts to implement robots collaboratively with human workers or damage employee morale. Citing surveys of 20 European manufacturing companies over 10 years, the report suggests that morale can suffer if humans are competing with robots for tasks. There’s also debate about whether robot coworkers also make human work more robotic in certain blue-collar roles. 

Crucial connection for 'quantum internet' made for the first time ScienceDaily — Researchers at Imperial College in London made a breakthrough last week that could lead to the first-ever quantum networks. Quantum computers have existed for years but couldn’t be connected over long distances because of the unique challenges of quantum signals. That could change with this new research, enabling powerful networks of quantum computers to help handle A.I.’s insatiable demand for computing power. 

Listen: Ep46. A.I. & the Future of Gaming 
Riot Games’ Rudi Bonaparte on A.I.’s Impact on the Gaming Industry and Simulating Real-world Future Society Scenarios

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“That's one of the benefits of being in the intersection of tech and art is that we can use the tech to raise the quality of the art.”

-Rudi Bonaparte

Rudi Bonaparte is driving innovation at Riot Games, the gaming studio that created the iconic ‘League of Legends’ which is the most-played PC game in the world.

Rudi is a gaming executive with a professional focus on creating systems and spaces that empower creators to do their best work. As Riot Game’s Director of Corporate Operations and Strategy, he helps senior executives and game development teams set clear goals, build exciting new capabilities, and thoughtfully allocate resources through a combination of strategic thinking and tactical implementation.

Charged with a new task in his role, Rudi ensures that Riot Games not only designs the most player-focused gaming experiences in the world, but is also the best and most creative place to develop these games.

Prior to joining Riot Games, Rudi led strategy and analytics teams at Teach for America and consulted with clients in the tech, telecom, and media industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern.

From the seat that Rudi sits in, how does he see A.I. impacting the future of the gaming industry? And how can we leverage gaming technology to simulate real-world future societies? Listen in to find out!

Check out Episode 46 today!

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👯‍♀️ 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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