Creativity Squared: On the Need for Explainable A.I.

Dear Creativity Squared Member,

Do you trust how your data is being handled in this era of A.I.?

Rob Richardson is the CEO and Founder of Disrupt Art and the Founder of Disruption Now Media, a platform that includes MidwestCon where Rob heads programming, and the Disruption Now Podcast, which Rob hosts and has conversations with disruptors focused on impact. Rob has appeared on MSNBC, America this Week, and is a regular contributor to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Now he’s featured on Creativity Squared! 

In Episode 25, discover how A.I. can be a force for good and why explainable A.I. is crucial in today's tech landscape. You’ll hear about the trends Rob is paying attention to when it comes to web3, blockchain, and artificial intelligence and how he’s thinking about policy innovation, trust, and transparency. You’ll also learn more about the vibrant tech scene here in Cincinnati and how the University of Cincinnati is at the forefront of innovation in explainable artificial intelligence.

Listen on to understand how to challenge assumptions and common narratives in order to move forward and create equity and positive impact with technology — check out Episode 25 today! 

In other news, my digital clone made her first conference appearance at last week’s Together Digital National Conference where I moderated an all-women panel on A.I. — stay tuned for the takeaways! And this past Tuesday, we had a fantastic turnout at the first-ever CincyAI Meetup for Humans, which Creativity Squared cohosted with Kendra Ramirez. Check out Kendra’s fantastic recap in her newsletter (which I encourage you to sign up for as well!). Helen 2.ODD, my digital clone, opened up the session with a warm welcome to the amazing A.I. community here in the Queen City. For those who are local, hope you can join the upcoming A.I. Avatars & Aperitifs next week on Tuesday, October 24 and the next CincyAI Meetup on Tuesday, November 14. 🥳

For those attending the Content Authenticity Initiative’s CAI Symposium 2023 at Stanford University, let me know. I’ll be there too and really excited for the opportunity to connect, learn, and discuss the urgent need to implement solutions that bring transparency to digital content.

Scroll on to discover:

• 🎭 Hollywood Strike Update: What’s the Latest on the Writers and Actors?

• 📆 Calendar of Events: Cincy

• 🎧 More on Episode 25

• 🤯 A.I. + Creativity News Roundup

• 🍸 A.I. Avatars & Aperitifs

• 👯‍♀️ Digitally Clone Yourself! The Avatar Experience

• 💎 Creativity Squared Premium Member Benefits

• 💝 Milestone Rewards

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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CreativitySquared.com
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How creatives are collaborating with A.I.

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📆 CALENDAR OF A.I. EVENTS: CINCY

October is packed with a ton of A.I. events you won’t want to miss for those here in Cincinnati. 🥳

🙌 OCT 23 - 26 - StartupCincy Week will be taking over Cincinnati, and you won’t want to miss our avatar events coinciding with the conference: A.I. Avatars & Aperitifs.

🍸 OCT 24 - Join A.I. Avatars & Aperitifs! Don’t miss this free happy hour and edu-taining event to learn about ethically created A.I. avatars and their creative and business use cases, including saving costs and streamlining video production for social media and email marketing, online courses, and customer service messaging. It’ll take place on Tuesday, October 24, from 5-6:30pm at ADC Fine Art Gallery located at 1013 York St. Cincinnati, OH 45214. RSVP required — Sign up here!

🤝 NOV 14 - Join me and others interested in all things A.I. at the CincyAI Meetup for Humans, cohosted by Creativity Squared, on Tuesday, October 17, 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!

Listen: E25. Don’t Trust A.I. — Verify
Explore Explainable A.I., Policy Innovation, and A.I. for Good with MidwestCon & Disrupt Art Founder Rob Richardson

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Rob Richardson is the CEO and Founder of Disrupt Art and the Founder of Disruption Now Media, a platform that includes MidwestCon where Rob heads programming, and the Disruption Now Podcast, which Rob hosts and has conversations with disruptors focused on impact. Rob has appeared on MSNBC, America this Week, and is a regular contributor to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Now he’s featured on Creativity Squared! 

Disrupt Art helps brands gamify loyalty programs and envisions a world where customers aren't just consumers but co-creators and stakeholders in the process. Disruption Now Media’s MidwestCon is a one-of-a-kind conference and cultural experience where policy meets innovation, creators ignite change, and tech fuels social impact.

When Rob was appointed chairman of the University of Cincinnati’s Board of Trustees, he became the youngest person to serve in this role in the University’s history. In his tenure, he established the 1819 Innovation Hub where industry and talent collaborate to spark groundbreaking ideas. He created a leadership development and academic preparedness program for high school students. He also championed reforms to the University’s police policies.

Rob also ran for public office as the Democratic nominee for Ohio treasurer in 2018. He received over 2 million votes running on the platform of inclusive innovation for Ohio.

Rob and I met at this year’s MidwestCon where speakers included Cincinnati Mayor Aftab, University of Cincinnati President Neville Pinto, Coinbase’s Head of US State and Local Public Policy David London, and the Emmy-nominated Co-founder and Host of What's Trending Shira Lazar. He’s invited me to be on the MidwestCon Committee for 2024’s conference happening next September, so stay tuned here so you don’t miss when the dates are announced.

In today’s episode, discover how A.I. can be a force for good and why explainable A.I. is crucial in today's tech landscape. You’ll hear about the trends Rob is paying attention to when it comes to web3, blockchain, and artificial intelligence and how he’s thinking about policy innovation, trust, and transparency. You’ll also learn more about the vibrant tech scene here in Cincinnati and how the University of Cincinnati is at the forefront of innovation in explainable artificial intelligence.

Listen on to understand how to challenge assumptions and common narratives in order to move forward and create equity and positive impact with technology — enjoy!

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:

• Baidu says its AI is in the same league as GPT-4  CNN — The Chinese digital services giant unveiled their latest A.I. model, ERNIE 4.0, on Tuesday, just seven months after launching their first generative A.I. model. The company says it can surpass GPT-4 in some areas. ERNIE is optimized for interaction in Mandarin but can output lower quality English responses. CEO Robin Li tried to distance the company from U.S.-China tensions, while facing competition domestically from Alibaba and Huawei.

• Maybe We Will Finally Learn More About How A.I. Works New York Times — Stanford researchers release their rankings of the most transparent foundational A.I. models. Meta’s open-source LlaMa 2 model came out on top, with ChatGPT taking third. Researchers called for greater transparency among models. Companies behind closed source models cite legal liability, competition, and safety among reasons to keep their model closed.

• New Senate Bill Seeks to Protect Artists From AI Deepfakes Rolling Stone — As Actors continue striking for protections from A.I. cloning, a new bipartisan bill is gaining traction to protect everyone else from the scourge of deepfakes. Those who create a deepfake for illicit commercial use or with malicious intent could be penalized $5,000 per offense. The bill would also address voice cloning in the music industry, gaining early support from the association representing major record companies.

• MAX Sneaks highlight several new generative AI capabilities across photo, video, audio, 3D and design Adobe — Among several A.I. projects underway at Adobe, one of them is straight out of a sci-fi movie. Research scientist, Christine Dierk, modeled a dress which uses A.I. to change the design and color of the dress with the press of a button. You have to watch the video in the link to fully appreciate the technology. The designs are built inside Adobe products and then applied to the special textile material of the dress. Adobe says the technology could also be applied to furniture.

• Can New York's mayor speak Mandarin? No, but with AI he's making robocalls in different languages AP — Some tech ethics groups are raising questions about a new type of public service robocall from New York’s omnipresent leader, Eric Adams. A watchdog group called it a “creepy vanity project” for Adams to use his own voice on the calls. The robocalls advertised public concerts and hiring events in Mandarin, Yiddish, Spanish, and other popular languages.

• Google requests dismissal of AI data scraping class-action suit Coin Telegraph — Unsurprisingly, Google responded to claims that their A.I. is built on copyright infringement by requesting a judge dismiss the case in a motion Tuesday. In one of several current landmark cases for intellectual property law, Google said that content owners failed to argue how they have been harmed by Google scraping data for A.I. training.

• Briefing: U.S. Bars Nvidia From Selling Advanced AI Chips to China  The Information (Subscribe with 25% off to support us) — The U.S. on Tuesday tightened its embargo on sales of advanced semiconductors to China, in a move that sent chipmaker stocks falling. U.S. officials say their aim is to slow or prevent China from developing advanced A.I. military technology. However, a chip shortage will likely impact growth across a wide section of the Chinese tech industry.

• This 21-Year-Old Used A.I. to Decipher Text From a Scroll That Hasn’t Been Read in 2,000 Years  Smithsonian Magazine — Archaeologists are celebrating a historic milestone after A.I. deciphered text from charred parchment that had been undecipherable since their discovery in the 1700s. Experts were eager to decipher the Herculaneum scrolls because much of Roman Classical culture has been lost to time. A contest for tech solutions to their problem led to two different participants independently deciphering the ancient Greek word for “purple.”

You’re Invited:
A.I. Avatars & Aperitifs

🍸 Join this free happy hour and edu-taining event to learn about ethically created A.I. avatars and their creative and business use cases, including saving costs and streamlining video production for social media and email marketing, online courses, and customer service messaging.

It’ll take place on Tuesday, October 24, from 5-6:30pm at ADC Fine Art Gallery located at 1013 York St. Cincinnati, OH 45214. RSVP required — Sign up here!

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 and get your custom avatar 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!

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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