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Creativity Squared: On A.I.and the Creator Economy

Dear Creativity Squared Collective —

Hope this finds you well wherever in the world you’re reading from today!

Yesterday I was on stage at MidwestCon with Sharufa Rashied-Walker, Nya Bere, and Mellini Monique discussing how to protect our authentic voices and human agency in the era of artificial intelligence.

One of the points I mentioned on stage is that I’m worried about the incentives for people to create and publish their content online.

When it comes to the human condition, there’s an urge to create — there’s always been an innate tendency for expression, innovation, and storytelling. That said, the urge to create doesn’t necessitate the need to share online, though.

The incentives for people to share content online are being threatened.

Let’s look at the bleak and current landscape for creators:

• Creator works have been scraped without consent or compensation to train LLMs

• IP protections are under threat

• The social platforms don’t pay out well, but ingest content aggressively — less than 4% of creators make more than $100K per year (source)

• Website traffic is down due to LLMs eating traditional search (source)

• A.I. slop, or low quality A.I.-created content, is being propagated at scale (source)

• People are publishing less to social networks (source)

• More than 51% of web traffic is from bots — not humans (source)

Given this, what are the incentives for posting and publishing content online?

Most of the above points are also part of what’s known as the dead internet theory that’s also picking up traction. Similar to MySpace’s downfall with its spam and porn takeover of its platform, we’re seeing the degradation of human-centered experiences across a more fragmented web with A.I. slop and bots taking over. Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the historical lack of human-centered wellbeing on these addictive, doom-scrolling social platforms either. Despite their upsides, they’ve never been exemplary of human thriving.

The irony is that the LLMs and social platforms rely on people to create not only for the success of their apps, but they also need original content to train their A.I. models — in studies we’ve seen that LLMs trained on A.I.-created content degrades the output and the models can even collapse (source).

This conundrum offers some hope that the platforms have the business incentive to better treat and compensate the creators on their platforms for the mutual benefit of all the parties, including the audiences who they’re trying to retain as much time and attention on their platforms as possible.

What does this mean for creators? Do they keep posting and playing to the algorithms in the hopes of being among the small percentage who are full-time creators? Or do they opt out of online publishing? Or will new opportunities emerge to properly support artists and creatives in the rising creator economy?

To keep the internet thriving and with human activity, the platforms that figure out how to better support creators will certainly emerge as the winners in the rising creator economy.

Don’t miss your opportunity to connect with Big Kitty Labs: exclusive to this newsletter, they’re offering a free software strategy session and bonus blueprint — a $2K value! Book your free call now with their A.I. expert developers to gain clarity on how to transform your idea into a business breakthrough: https://bigkittylabs.com/offer 

Two shameless plugs: book me as a speaker for your next event and pre-order my forthcoming book on the Imagination Age today!

Until next week, here’s to playing in the playground of possibility to manifest more magic in 2025! 🪄✨

-Helen

Helen Todd (she/her)
Human behind Creativity Squared
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How creatives are collaborating with A.I.

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💝 PRE-ORDER YOUR BOOK

Become a Creativity Squared and #ImaginationAge supporter today! Pre-order my forthcoming book as a crowd-funded advance, enabling me to bring it to life. The book is based on my SXSW presentation of the same name, “Farewell, Information Age — Welcome to the Imagination Age.” Your financial support enables the movement and this independent female voice to champion it — thank you to everyone who’s already ordered a copy!

💝 SUPPORT CREATIVITY SQUARED & ARTSWAVE

How can you support this show? I’m so glad you asked! ☺️

Here are a few ways you can contribute to this independent female voice’s platform who’s championing Responsible A.I. and a human-centered future where it’s Dolly Parton and Holly Herndon — protectors of dreams and generative in their generosity and work — ushering in the #ImaginationAge (not AI ushering in the Intelligence Age, where humans are erased, starting with the framing…but I digress!).

Please consider supporting Creativity Squared in whatever way you can and would like to:

✅ Subscribe to the Creativity Squared YouTube channel (one day in the near future, I’ll be making money from this channel!)

🎨 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 or making a one-time tip!

🦋 I'm SUPER excited to share that my SXSW presentation, Farewell, Information Age — Welcome to the Imagination Age, is becoming a book! 📗 The conversations on my podcast Creativity Squared have informed many of the concepts. Pre-order your copy today as a crowd-funded advance to support an independent female voice. Your support will enable me to bring this idea to life — and is greatly appreciated! 🥰💛

🎉 And as a reminder, when you support this show, you’re also supporting ArtsWave! 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. For the third year in a row, we’re proud to partner with ArtsWave to also amplify the phenomenal artists selected for their 2025 Black and Brown Artist Program, elevating underrepresented voices and bridging cultural divides through art. You can get caught up on previous years’ ArtsWave interview series here!

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

👍 AFFILIATE RECOMMENDATIONS 

💝 Using these links also supports Creativity Squared, and we only recommend what we actually back!

🐝 We use Beehiiv for this newsletter and are big fans! (If you’re not aware of Substack’s racist issues, this NYT article is for you.)

🎙 Riverside is the platform we use for recording podcast episodes, and recommend the web-based software!

🎶 Play Audio Agency, headquartered in Cincinnati, is home to the team that helps produce the show and are audio rock stars!

🖥 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!

📆 EVENTS, A.I. CONFERENCES & MORE! 

🎤 SEPTEMBER 16 VARTECH, Bahamas
🎤 SEPTEMBER 29 BOND — Arc Interiors, Orlando
📍 SEPTEMBER 24-26 TEDAI Vienna, Vienna, Austria
📍 SEPTEMBER 26 OhioX Ohio Tech Day (OhioX, #OhioX), Columbus

For the full calendar, check it out here!

Interested in having me speak at your event or host a workshop for your organization? Reach out!

🗞 PRESS & PODCAST INTERVIEWS

📺 BBC News (June 5, 2025) — What is the future of digital clones? 

🎤 SXSW 2025 (March 11, 2025) “Farewell, Information Age — Welcome to the Imagination Age”:

🎙 Fulcra Dynamics podcast, “The Augmented Life,” with CEO Michael Tiffany (April 29, 2025) — The Imagination Age Is Here: Reclaiming Attention, Creativity, and the Future of AI with Helen Todd

🎙 AI Explored with Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner (November 5, 2024) — Using AI to Expand Your Ideas and Creativity 

🎙 Reflections with an Accent with Kike Calvo (October 18, 2024) — Unveiling AI's Creative Power with Helen Todd | Reflections with an Accent 

🏆 Cincinnati Business Courier’s Fire Awards (May 2025) — Finalist in “Disruptor” category for CincyAI for Humans

🏆 Aviatra Accelerators (September 5, 2024) — Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award 

📖 Movers & Makers Magazine (October 1, 2024) — Notables in AI + Print

📖 Cincinnati Magazine + Print (December 19, 2023) — Clone Wars + Print

🖥 SXSW Conference Community Newsletter (December 5, 2024) — SXSW 2025 Speaker Helen Todd talks Digital Twins

🖥 UC News (July 5, 2024) — Mayor Pureval, Rob Richardson lead ethical AI symposium

🖥 UC News (June 4, 2024) — Community of AI enthusiasts expands in Cincinnati

🖥 AdAge (April 15, 2024) — The Dalí Museum used AI to recreate Salvador Dalí’s voice—so you can ask him anything

🖥 UC Office of Research (February 28, 2024) — CincyAI and Digital Futures Partnership: Growing AI Talent in our Region & Beyond 

Listen: Ep.75 BBL Drizzy, A.I. & Manifesting A.I.: Discover How Will Hatcher Manifested His Way to a Time100 A.I. 2024 Honoree

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

“If you're trying to play life safe, then I don't think you can fully experience life, you know. So you gotta go to places that you never been before, be in uncomfortable situations, because that's where the real growth is.” -King Willonius

Discover the magic of manifesting in a Creativity Squared exclusive interview from the ONLY comedian (and one of two artists!) who’s a Time100 AI 2024 honoree in the Innovators category: King Willonius. 👑 

His real name is Willonius Hatcher (his first name is pronounced “Will-OWN-ee-us,” and he also goes by Will). 2024 has been a breakout year for Will after his “BBL Drizzy” comedy song went viral — the first song made in collaboration with A.I. that became a cultural phenomenon, transcending genres and mediums!  

What do Burning Man, Dune 2, and the Frost Planetarium have to do with his story? Listen in to our 75th episode — and the last one for 2024! — to find out.

Creativity Squared interviewed Will live at the FilmGate Miami Interactive Festival XI, one of the top ten immersive festivals in the world! You’ll hear why it’s so special from the festival’s Head Curator, Co-Founder, and Executive Producer, Diliana Alexander. 

On opening night, the FilmGate Miami audience got a preview of the “BBL Drizzy Musical Dome Experience”. Next year, Creativity Squared will be back to see the full production and host another time capsule conversation with Will. 

Once you check out the interview, you’ll know that Will is just scratching the surface of what’s possible — he’s ahead of the entertainment industries, and is definitely one to follow!

Why did he make the Time100 AI 2024 Innovators list? 

For Creativity Squared Founder and Podcast Host, Helen Todd’s take, check out the dedicated blog post accompanying this episode (we recommend starting with this first 😉):

Our 2025 podcast season will kick off again in April, but we’ll keep the newsletter going between now and then, aside from the holidays.

Here’s to manifesting more magic in the new year — enjoy! 💝🪄✨

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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.

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