🏎️ USA vs China — The A.I. Race

Author

Helen Todd (Human)
July 03, 2025

In partnership with 

Creativity Squared: On China and the A.I. Race
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“A republic, if you can keep it.”

Benjamin Franklin when asked what type of government the Constitutional Convention adopted

Dear Creativity Squared Collective —

Tomorrow is our Fourth of July holiday in the States — wishing everyone celebrating a wonderful holiday weekend! 🎆 (After this week’s news, I can imagine we could all use a break!)

This past Tuesday was our July CincyAI for Humans meetup, and the theme that emerged reflected the A.I. agents trend that’s getting all the buzz right now. For those in Cincinnati, our next meeting is August 5 — sign up for free today! 

Switching into today’s newsletter theme and on the eve of Independence Day, I wanted to highlight a different perspective on China that most of the headlines don’t reflect regarding A.I. and the race to AGI.

Whenever I’m in conversations about the Imagination Age, the question “But what about China?” seems to almost always come up — especially when any form of regulation is mentioned. It seems like we’ve given up on the idea of slowing down in any meaningful way, but for the record, I’m still very much in favor of validating A.I. before releasing it!

As you likely have seen, the media articles write that if we don’t win this A.I. race, then China will, ending democracy as we know it.

This is a binary argument we’ve heard before when it comes to social media: you can either have freedom of speech or democracy, but not both. As I’ve written before in this newsletter, the new A.I. spin is that you can have progress or safety, but not both.

And why not both? Because of the race with China that we can’t lose.

This video by More Perfect Union, a fantastic independent nonprofit newsroom, breaks down why this argument is being used — spoiler: as a scare tactic for deregulation, to maximize profits, and consolidate power. And why it doesn’t hold up: China has one of the best A.I. regulated environments in the world. The video is only a little over 13 minutes, and is worth a watch, including the issue of A.I.’s path to profitability after enormous investments:

Aza Raskin and Randy Fernando, in their Center for Humane Technology podcast, Your Undivided Attention, also discuss this. In the episode on the AGI race, they share:

Randy: If we can't get simple versions of this to work now in 2025 — when all of these problems are the simplest they're ever going to be — that doesn't bode well for the future. So shifting our attention to that and asking how we wrap our hands around these technologies right now is absolutely crucial.

Aza: This is why the rhetoric that we must beat our foreign rivals to A.I. is actually missing the point. The competition can't just be about racing to build something we ultimately can't control. There's an implicit assumption — like with guns and airplanes — that the more powerful you make it, the more in control you are. But A.I. doesn’t work like that. The real race should be about strengthening your society, and whoever does that better wins. Right now, we are not setting ourselves up to strengthen society — we’re just generating more power, which is uncontrollable.

Our Creativity Squared writer, Jason Schneider, also weighs in on the promise and perils of A.I. — in his own words: the inherent limitations are daunting, but its scariest scenarios will be due to human ineptitude and iniquity! 🙃

The Promise & Perils of A.I.

Jason Schneider explores a recent, surreal episode involving Grok—X’s A.I. chatbot—which became fixated on “white genocide in South Africa,” hijacking unrelated queries with bizarre, racially charged responses. This cautionary tale dives deep into how powerful yet unpredictable large language models truly are — and how the real danger may lie not in the machines themselves, but in the humans programming them.

One silver lining from this week’s news is that in the “Big Beautiful Bill” that is going to be absolutely devastating and JUST got passed in the House, the plan to block states from regulating A.I. for 10 years got rejected.

As we see the 1% gain massive tax cuts and absorb more wealth than ever in the history of the States, I’m reminded of Benjamin Franklin’s words — we have a republic, if we can keep it! And we’re going to need more than A.I. to keep it.

Later this month, July 17-18, is The JoySpan Salon in the Hudson Valley, NY (Use code HELEN-JOY2025 for 35% off!). Grab your ticket and join to see Creativity Squared guests speak, including Joanna Peña-Bickley and Cindy Gallop!

Stay tuned for more content from SXSW (yes — I’m still waiting on a few videos!) and my interview with Afro House DJ Bluey.

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

-Helen

p.s. Our 2025 podcast season will kick off again this summer, but we’ll keep the newsletter going between now and then, aside from the holidays and major conferences.

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’s who’s already ordered a copy!

Senators Reject 10-Year Ban on State-Level AI Regulation

In a blow to Big Tech, senators rejected a plan to block states from regulating AI for 10 years

time.com/7299044/senators-reject-10-year-ban-on-state-level-ai-regulation-in-blow-to-big-tech

“We Don’t Want Our Music Killing People”: Indie Rock Band Quit Spotify Over AI Battle

Deerhoof has announced they are leaving Spotify, noting that the streaming company "only pays a pittance" to artists.

www.vice.com/en/article/we-dont-want-our-music-killing-people-indie-rock-band-quit-spotify-over-ai-battle

Microsoft to cut up to 9,000 jobs as it invests in AI

The US tech giant will axe 4% of its global workforce and plough money into artificial intelligence.

www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdxl0w1w394o

AI-Generated Band Already Boasts Over 500,000 Monthly Spotify Listeners

The Velvet Sundown appears to be an AI-generated band that has amassed over 500,000 monthly Spotify listeners and released two albums in two weeks.

consequence.net/2025/06/the-velvet-sundown-ai-band

How AI Is Rewriting Grief, Memory, and Death

"The dead have never been this talkative before."

time.com/7298290/ai-death-grief-memory

They want to be your anime best friend — on your phone and IRL at Dodger Stadium

Dodger Stadium is hosting a VTuber event. There's a VTuber concert in Hollywood. And then there's Anime Expo. VTubers are descending on L.A.

www.latimes.com/travel/story/2025-07-03/vtubers-movement-hololive-dodger-stadium

Google begins rolling out AI search in YouTube

The feature is only available as a test for Premium members for now.

arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/06/google-begins-rolling-out-ai-search-in-youtube

Cloudflare will now, by default, block AI bots from crawling its clients’ websites

The company will also introduce a "pay-per-crawl" system to give users more fine-grained control over how AI companies can access their sites.

www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/01/1119498/cloudflare-will-now-by-default-block-ai-bots-from-crawling-its-clients-websites

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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:

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🦋 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!

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👍 AFFILIATE RECOMMENDATIONS 

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🐝 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!

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🖥 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! 

📍 JULY 14-16 Black Tech Week, Cincinnati
📍 JULY 16-18 Data 4 Public Good (D4PG, #D4PG), Minneapolis
📍 July 17-18 The JoySpan Salon, Hudson Valley, NY (Use code HELEN-JOY2025 for 35% off!)
📍 JULY 17-20 ArtsWave 2025 Black and Brown Artists Grant Program Showcase, Cincinnati

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? 

Farewell, Information Age — Welcome to the Imagination Age!

SXSW 2025 Schedule | Embark on an adventure into the Imagination Age, where economic value derives from the power of ideas and anything you envision can materialize. A.I. is ushering in an era where human creativity — not productivity — reigns supreme. Ideas are the new currency and thoughts the new prompts, with the gap between concept and creation rapidly shrinking. To be human is to be creative, and this moment beckons us to shift our focus from human DOING to human BEING — ethically and responsibly. Join this...

schedule.sxsw.com/2025/events/PP154406

🎙 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 (June 4, 2024) — Community of AI enthusiasts expands in Cincinnati

🖥 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 😉):

Ep75. King Willonius: BBL Drizzy, A.I. & Manifesting - Creativity Squared

Ep75. King Willonius: BBL Drizzy, A.I. & Manifesting: Discover How Will Hatcher Manifested His Way to a Time100 A.I. 2024 Honoree

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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