Welcome to the 128th issue of The Groove.

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HOW TO THRIVE IN THE AGE OF AI

You know that things have been growing science fiction in this planet for the last 3 years, but when ChatGTP launched last November with much deserved hype, I heard and watched a lot of people catastrophize about the end of human creativity, critical thinking, research, writing, art-making and a myriad of other nefarious consequences. In other words: some people assumed the position where they decided to give up all their power and hand it over to the machines.

I had covered AI in The Groove before from a different angle. However, I wanted to look back and see who in the history of art and innovation has come close to where we are right now.

The visionary Nam June Paik came to mind. An artist born in Seoul in 1932, who studied in Tokyo, later moved to Munich, finally relocating to New York in 1964 and who is considered the father of video art. Paik was not only a pioneer in his thinking and writing, but also in the execution of his projects, always subordinating technology to human will, not the other way around.

Humanize Technology

AI is here to serve us, not to destroy us. But that really depends on the way you see things. If your focus and intention is using AI to help yourself do a better/faster/cheaper job at whatever it is you do, then you’ve won half the battle.

In 1963, Paik’s work “Participation TV” was a TV set that let the participant control the visuals on the screen by speaking or making sounds on a microphone. As people made a noise, the screen instantaneously translated the sounds into lines, graphs, and other forms.

This was totally revolutionary at the time. Many people dismissed it, saying it wasn't even art. Today, when we see Paik's experiments, we understand how he anticipated 21st century discussions about social media and social interaction through multimedia platforms.

Paik was pretty aware that technology use was full of perils. He spoke about humanizing TV and video, an idea he got from “The Human Use of Human Beings”, a book by American mathematician Norbert Wiener. After that, humanity was at the core of all his projects.

Interconnecting humans in different places, prompting people to interact with his work, incorporating collaborations with the body -- those were some of Paik’s ways to humanize technology. There was also the understanding that he was the one in charge, and he reinforced this thought by encouraging future generations: “They must prevent the high tech from overpowering the art. If we can avoid this danger, then it will be alright.”

Rather than fearing that your job is on the line, what if you were to use AI in a way that supports, augments and expands what you do?

Be Always Ahead with Your Mind

Your imagination is infinite and everything that exists in this world was once a thought in someone’s mind. The things that AI is now capable of doing, researching and creating, can be the next stepping stones for your big breakthrough.

Almost 20 years before the World Wide Web opened to the world in 1991, Paik wrote about his plans using the term “electronic superhighway” in a paper for the Rockefeller Foundation published in 1974. In that document he explained that “building of a new electronic superhighway will become a huge enterprise.” He gave an example of connecting New York with Los Angeles by means of an electronic telecommunication network that operates by strong transmission, continental satellites, and wave guides. He later upgraded to laser beam fiber optics.

Years later, when the Internet had already launched and people were commonly using the most revolutionary invention of the last 100 years, Paik said: “I thought: if you create a highway, then people are going to invent cars. That's dialectics. If you create electronic highways, something has to happen.”

So Paik was thinking about things that seemed far-fetched, but he was writing how we could get there, using powerful metaphors in the way only the best artists and visionaries do.

AI will become a very important tool for life. Period. There will be ramifications in science, art, literature, construction and anything else you can think of. For you to benefit from it, following Paik’s quote, you have to think how to build the cars that will go in that highway. What’s possible from this standpoint? It’s really endless.

Think About Bringing People Together

I adamantly believe that when there’s a project whose positive intent is truthful and has been set from the get-go, things tend to fall into place sooner or later.

Building things for the benefit of people, creating communities, and envisioning thousands or millions constructively impacted by your work can be legit rocket fuel for your goals.

Paik did several projects using satellites and livestreams connecting people from all over the world when the entire operation was much more complex than what it is today.

*Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii*, 1995

During the New Year's Day celebration on January 1, 1984, he aired “Good Morning, Mr. Orwell”, a live stream between WNET New York, Centre Pompidou Paris, and South Korea. With the participation of John Cage, Salvador Dalí, Laurie Anderson, Joseph Beuys, Merce Cunningham, George Plimpton, and other artists, Paik showed that the dystopian Big Brother from George Orwell’s 1984 had not arrived.

When asked about his trailblazing use of technology, he was clear that the tools around him were there to serve him and his people. And he was enthusiastic about the prospects: “I have more opportunities to try out new combinations of new hardware and new software. Hardware-software combinations are very, very rich, almost inexhaustible.”

Everybody filters their reality according to their own beliefs and biases. For some we live in apocalyptic times, others only see opportunities like Paik did.

I’m going with the latter and I hope you do too.

JUMPSTART: IGNITE YOUR CREATIVITY FOR PROFIT, INNOVATION, AND REINVENTION

I’ve put together a free webinar for those of you who are not members of my online course and inner circle.

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If you’d like to watch it, please register here (it’s on auto-repeat every 15 minutes once you have registered).

But if you are ready to enroll now, you can do so here. I’m always thrilled to welcome new members!

HOW CREATIVITY RULES THE WORLD

My book was chosen by the Next Big Idea Club as one of the top books of creativity!

Have you gotten yours yet? If you enjoy this newsletter you will love my book!

How Creativity Rules The World is filled with practical tools that will propel and guide you to help you get any project from an idea to a concrete reality.

It’s in three formats: hardcover, eBook and audiobook.

TEDX TALK

Have you already watched my TEDx Talk: “NFTs, Graffiti and Sedition: How Artists Invent The Future”?

I share three lessons I have learned from artists that always work for anyone in their careers. Watch it here.

The Groove Issue 128 - How to Thrive in the Age of AI