Creativity Squared: On Freedom, the Future of Creativity, and Zero Gravity Dancing

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Dear Creativity Squared Member,

I couldn’t be more excited to introduce Episode 49’s guest: Yemi A.D. — he’s an artist who’s going to the Moon! Yes, you read that right. 🚀

I first met Yemi at the Austrian Trade Commission’s BOLD networking event at SXSW, but it wasn’t until he was on stage revealing the humanoid robot Apollo — which was trained on his dance moves — that I learned he was selected to be on the dearMoon mission! Yemi’s got an amazing, infectious energy, optimism, and outlook.

Yemi, a Czech-Nigerian choreographer, was chosen from among 1 million candidates to be a crew member of dearMoon, marking the first all-civilian space trip around the Moon. He’s one of the eight artists chosen to join Japanese entrepreneur and art collector Yusaku Maezawa, who believes art has the power to promote world peace.      

Yemi’s love of movement and finding freedom in movement are intertwined into all aspects of his life, which you’ll hear in the conversation.

In this episode, listen to Yemi's incredible journey from growing up as the only Black child where he was raised in Czechoslovakia to his rise as a creative powerhouse working with Kanye West to traveling into space. We also dive into how Yemi's studies of indigenous cultures worldwide gave him insight into the intelligence of movement. He also shares the importance of representation in the tech industry to ensure a more inclusive and human-centered approach to A.I. and robotics — he’s a futurist and proud that the word “robot” was created by the Czech writer Karel Čapek.

Yemi believes that the best way to predict the future is to create it, and he's doing just that. Tune in to discover his vision for the future he’s working to create.

Check out Episode 49 today! 

It’s been another wild week with A.I. news — don’t worry, we have you covered in our news roundup section. We included some of the most impressive videos from OpenAI’s new GPT-4o model and Google’s I/O announcements, including Astra. We’re getting closer to the movie Her! All the current rage is omni model, which includes impressive computer vision capabilities that are unlocking greater accessibility.

There won't be a podcast episode next week ahead of Memorial Day Weekend in the U.S., but don't worry we'll still send out a newsletter! This will give me a chance to actually get caught up on the takeaways I’ve been promising after being on stage with Professor De Kai at the Texas Eclipse Festival, attending the MIT A.I. Summit, and joining Joanna Peña-Bickley’s Future Frequences Salon.

For our 50th episode — yes, 50th! — we have Sam Jordan from the Future Today Institute which was founded by the one and only futurist Amy Webb. Sam and I dive into Amy’s 2024 SXSW trends keynote and strategic insights report for a glimpse into the future and how we can have autonomy in the age of A.I. — you won’t want to miss this episode dropping on May 30th.

Scroll on to discover:

• 🥳 Featured Blog Post: Celebrating Surrealist Icon Salvador Dalí's 120th Birthday with the Immortal A.I. Dalí

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

• 🤯 A.I. + Creativity News Roundup

• 🎧 More on Episode 49

• 👯‍♀️ 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

JUNE 4 CincyAI Meetup, Cincinnati (Co-Host)

JUNE 4 ‘Makers + Mixers’ Happy Hour, Cincinnati (Community Partner)

JUNE 11-13 Cincy AI Week, Cincinnati (Host Committee)

JUNE 12-16 BOLD UnConference, Austria (Attendee)

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

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

SEPTEMBER 4-6: MidwestCon, Cincinnati (Speaker)

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

Interested in having me speak at your event? 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.

Check out these videos from OpenAI and Google's announcements this week. For additional video content related to these announcements, click through to their YouTube channels.

New GPT-4o AI model is faster and free for all users, OpenAI announces The Guardian — OpenAI released their new flagship model on Monday along with a desktop interface console and a more human-like voice assistant. In demos, the assistant accurately deciphered facial expressions and walked the user through a math problem. Executives called the new model “the future of interaction” with machines. 

Senate committee passes three bills to safeguard elections from AI, months before Election Day The Verge  — Federal lawmakers took a baby step toward regulating potential A.I. election interference. One of the bills would give poll workers important info about A.I. threats. The second bill would make certain deepfakes of federal candidates illegal during the election. The third would require political advertisers to label any content that A.I. generates or manipulates.

OpenAI Loses Two More Leaders—What Does That Mean for AI Safety? Decrypt — Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, two leaders focused on building responsible A.I. at OpenAI, quit yesterday following the release of GPT-4o. Sutskever was widely rumored to be behind Sam Altman’s ouster last year. Some speculate that Sustskever was dismayed at the company’s AGI work. Sutskever was absent from Monday’s GPT-4o launch. 

Prepare to Get Manipulated by Emotionally Expressive Chatbots WIRED — OpenAI and Google both released powerful new chatbots this week. One of their biggest differences? OpenAI gave their GPT-4o model a sexy voice and the ability for emotional voice inflection. Google’s Project Astra chatbot sounds robotic by comparison, which Google says is a deliberate ethical decision. A recent Google paper on the ethics of human-like agents warns that emotionally capable agents could be used to target and exploit vulnerable humans for money or pain. 

Google unveils Veo, a high-definition AI video generator that may rival Sora Ars Technica — Google’s annual I/O developer conference also featured a demo of their unreleased text-to-video generator, Veo. Google says the Veo model can render clips over a minute long in 1080p, with video editing features as well. A release date hasn’t been set. 

EU investigates Facebook owner Meta over child safety and mental health concerns The Guardian — Meta could be liable for failing to protect children from online harms, according to a new inquiry launched by the European Commission. Under the Digital Services Act passed last year, large platforms like Meta have a duty to mitigate systemic harms such as mental health effects on kids and disinformation. 

The Top AI announcements from Google I/O TechCrunch — Additional highlights include an upcoming Gemini model featuring live voice chat that flows like a conversation rather than a prompt-and-response format. Gemini can also see and hear the world around it through photo, video, and mic input. Generative A.I. is getting beefed up in search to make results more navigable. Photos will get an A.I. assistant to help find and manage your images. And Gemini in Gmail will be able to summarize emails and perform some admin or agent tasks.

Senators Propose $32 Billion in Annual A.I. Spending but Defer Regulation The New York Times — After months of hearings and bipartisan negotiating, Senate leadership has an idea of how they’ll approach A.I. regulation. Low-hanging fruit for bipartisan consensus includes leveraging A.I. for national security, combating nonconsensual deepfakes and election disinformation, and addressing job displacement. This development is separate from the bills that passed the committee this week. The Senate Leadership’s proposals will be drafted into various legislation over the next several months.

Listen: Ep49. This Artist is Going to the Moon!
From Training Humanoid Robots to Dance to Being a #dearMoon Crew Member, Meet Yemi A.D.

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“We can either shoot rockets at each other, or we can shoot rockets to space. And the space mission is known for one thing in particular. We need it to unite, to be able to overcome gravity...Space travel is uniting, and we need to be united."”

-Yemi A.D.

Yemi A.D. (Yemi Akinyemi Dele) is a multidisciplinary creative force dedicated to helping people unlock their creative potential. He’s also preparing for his biggest mission yet: a trip around the Moon!  

As a Czech-Nigerian artist, entrepreneur, and crew member of the dearMoon mission, Yemi exemplifies a pioneering spirit and profound passion for social innovation and youth empowerment. 

Yemi is the Founder & CEO of Moonshot Platform, an organization dedicated to accelerating young leaders working towards solutions for the Sustainable Development Goals. His 20 years of experience across the industries of entertainment, arts, and technology includes collaborating with Grammy Award-winning artist Kanye West for five years to create and execute his global concerts, tours, and music videos. Yemi also works with brands like Google, Apple, Coca-Cola, and T-Mobile, and speaks on stages like TEDx, Texas Eclipse Festival, and SXSW on the future of creativity and space exploration. 

Yemi believes that the best way to predict the future is to create it, and he's doing just that. Tune in to discover his vision for the future he’s working to create.

Check out Episode 49 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

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• 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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