Okay,  we're  going  to  get  going  then. I'm  going  to  welcome  all  of  you  here  to  our  event  on  AI, art  and  Afro  Futurism, Steam  Learning  with  Dr.  Natrice  Gaskins. I'm  your  host  for  today. I'm  Dr.  Lisa  Yazek. I'm  a  Regents  Professor  of  Science  Fiction  Studies. And  we're  really  thrilled  to  have  you  all  here  today. As  many  of  you  know,  Georgia  Tech has  had  a  very  longstanding  commitment to  the  speculative  arts  and all  their  forms  for  well  over  50  years  now. And  we're  excited  to  continue  this  tradition  by  bringing back  one  of  our  own  right  dim  alum,  Dr.  Gaskins. So  really  quickly  I  just  want  to thank  everyone  at  the  library for  making  this  event  possible. And  particularly  Katherine  Mansey,  Matt  Frizell, and  Allison  Reynolds  for your  specific  help  as  the  brain  trust  behind  this  hall. And  of  course,  I  want  to  thank all  of  you  for  being  here  today. Special  shout  out  to  my  students  from  women, science  fiction  and  fantasy  and  horror  class  and  from my  global  science  fiction  class for  all  of  your  being  here  today. Yeah.  Give  yourself  a  round  of  applause. And  then  better  yet  now  you're going  to  applaud  because  I'm  going  to  stop  talking. And  I'm  going  to  allow  my  community  partner,  Dedrn  Sneed, who's  the  owner  and  operator  of the  speculative  arts  incubator  subsume  studio. Say  a  few  words  before  we  get  to  the  main  event. Dedrn,  Come  on  up. All  right  we. Good  day  y'all  hope  everyone's  doing  well. And  it's  just  privileged  to  be  in  the  space  and be  able  to  imagine  and  dream not  only  the  works  of  Dr.  Gaskins, but  this  fantastic  space that  we  have  here  during  Black  History  month, or  as  I  like  to  site  as  Black  Futures  Month. Where  we're  still  in  the  space  of innovation  and  opportunity  and  advocacy  for  all. And  just  who  am  I, why  I'm  up  here?  So  Sneed. I'm  owner  operator  of  Subsumed  Studios right  up  the  street  in  Atlanta  underground. So  we  work  in  the  space  of  creativity,  technology, and  community  where  we  will  look  to  be the  infrastructure  of  education  and  advocacy for  all  and  using  Afro  futurism  as a  tool  and  a  resource  for  social  and  civic  service. And  so  to  my  right  here  would  love  to  more  formally introduce  Dr.  Nutrice  Gaskins and  had  to  go  ahead  and  get  the  requisite  notes  out. But  then  I  have  just  a  little  something to  say  about  that,  if  I  may. Dr.  Nutrice  Gaskins  is an  African  American  traditional  and  digital  artist, academic  cultural  critic,  and  advocate  in  Stem  fields. She  has  her  Bachelor  of  Fine  Arts  from  Pratt  Institute, Master  of  Fine  Arts  from the  School  of  Arts  Institute  in  Chicago, and  a  Phd  from  the  Georgia  Institute  of  Technology. You  can't  give  a  round  of  applause  for  that, being  in  the  space. Now  to  go  off  script, Dr.  Gaskins  and  I,  you  know, just  as  a  way  in  a  space  to connect  first  was  as  a  fan,  much  like  you  all, I  was  enthralled  by  her  work in  the  space  of  not  only  her  book  of, and  I'm  going  to  get  it  right,  techno  nacular  creativity, innovation,  culturally  relevant  making, inside  and  outside  of  the  classroom. And  so  it  was  as  all  good  things and  all  good  meetings  and  relationships  in  life. It  started  with  a  house  party  somewhere  at  MT,  all  right? And  so  have  years  of  trying  to  meet  her  here, meet  her  here  in  Georgia  and  in  other  spaces. It  just  so  happened that  one  fateful  night  that  I  was  working  for a  place  that  she  had  worked  for  and  got invited  to  the  owner's  family  home. And  lo  and  behold,  when the  music  started,  who  would  come  in? It  was  almost  by  fate  that Dr.  Gaskins  and  I  would  meet  and would  go  from  a  fan  boy  to  a  collaborator. And  I  would  say  just  say, a  cherished  connection  and  friend  and really  an  inspiration  for  the  work  that not  only  we  try  to  do  at  subsume, but  in  the  space  of  Afro  futurism. And  I  will  close  to  say  that  I  feel  that  Dr. Natrice  Gaskins  is  the  nexus  of  the  Afro  fantastic. She  is  dynamic,  she  is  diverse, and  she  is  dedicated  to creating  the  speculative  futures  where  art, AI,  and  advocacy  and  learning  are  always  accessible. And  to  that,  I  just  want  to thank  you  all  for  your  time  and  attention  as hopefully  the  next  voice  that  you  will  hear is  Dr.  Natrice  Gaskins.  Thank  you  so  much. Thanks  Drin.  Can  people  hear  me  all  right? So  I  did  turn  my  mike  on.  I  think  I  did. But  I  have  a  script  that's  new.  This  is  my  new  thing. Scripts.  Okay.  So  title  slide  and  I'll  get  started. Alondra  Nelson  at  the  White  House. She's  considered  to  be  a  first  wave  Apha  futurist. She  was  doing  a  lot  of  academic writing  when  it  was  coined. She  says  that  Apu  is  a  term  to  describe  analysis, criticism,  and  cultural  production. A  critical  perspective  that  addresses  many overlaps  that  include  race  and  technology. And  she  says  that  Aputurism  is  not  bound by  a  singular  concept,  definition  or  movement. It  is  clear  and its  advancement  an  open  ended  and  ever  evolving. So  I  met  Alandra  when  I  was  in Atlanta,  so  different  circles. But  we  all  met  at  Princeton  University  in  2015. I  believe  it  was  called Ferguson  Is  the  Future  with  Ruja  Benjamin. And  I  remember  Alandra  was  the  keynote. And,  you  know,  we  were  all  in  the  audience with  some  pretty  well  known  people, writers,  Tenana  Reeve,  do  you  know  everybody  is  in  her? And  she  goes,  yeah,  so  Afesian 1.0  is  me  and  blah,  blah,  blah  and  these  people. And  then  she  goes  Afesian  3.0  Dr.  Gaskins, and  everybody  goes  three  point of  people  are  still  in  the  two  point  oh, that  was  ten  years  ago,  almost  nine  years  ago. So  I'm  going  to  talk  a  little  bit  about the  kind  general  thing  and  how  it  relates  to  where we  are  today.  This  is  a  timeline. I'm  going  to  go  through  some  of the  main  points  on  the  top  part  of  the  timeline, but  on  the  bottom  part  is  what  we  know  in IT  and  communications  in  general. But  along  the  way  we have  these  sort  of  milestones  in  Apt. In  terms  of  research,  you  may  want  to  take  note  from the  early  1900s  all  the  way  through  the  2020s. And  I'm  going  to  touch  on  these  things  now, so  just  keep  that  in  mind. It  starts  with  1905  with  EB  Debois  Megascope, which  was  envisioned  by  Stacy  Robinson  on  the  left. Debois  wrote  this  science  fiction  story about  a  black  sociologist and  it's  called  The  Princess  Steel. It  was  recently  discovered, it  was  never  really  officially  published. But  he  talks  about this  wearable  technology  called the  Megoscope  that  could  see  across  time  and  space. The  story  was  written 45  plus  years  before  terms  like  cybernetics, artificial  intelligence,  and  virtual  reality were  coined  45  years. So  just  in  terms  of  the  speculative,  you  know, boys  was  already  there  in early  1900s  and  then  along  the  way, like  in  1966,  we  have  Shaky  the  robot. So  we  have  AI  starting  to  come  into  the  '50s, in  the  '60s  and  of  course cyborgs  and  things  like  that  into  the  present. But  just  the  Afro  futurism  and the  idea  of  speculative  fiction began  thinking  about  these  things, addressing  these  issues  long before  these  things  happened. This  is  a  little  part  of  the  text where  he  says  carefully  he adjusted  it  and  this  is  Megoscope. When  he  raised  the  silken  cords, what  I  now  saw  were  head  and  eye  and  ear  and  handpieces. The  things  I  touched  seemed tremulous,  alive,  pulsing  now. And  said  his  hollow  voice, the  experiment  begins,  look,  feel,  see. So  I  took  parts  of  that  and  put  it  in  mid  journey, and  it  came  up  with  that  larger  image. But  then  here  comes  apple  vision. So  imagine  that. Now  we're  able  to  the  thing  that the  boys  was  writing  about  in  1905, and  it's  never  published. So  they're  thinking  it's  1905. It  could  have  been  earlier,  is  now  it's  Apple  Vision  Pro. How  many  years?  A  whole  century. Now  we  finally  have  it. But  he  was  writing  about  it  in  1905, so  I  thought  that  was  really  cool. So  this  is  Sun  Ra. Sun  Ra  is  considered  to  be  proto  Afrofuturist. He's  the  father  grandfather  Afrofuturism,  Jazz  maverick. I  have  some  connection to  Sun  Ra  through  this  project  which  is the  Outer  Space  Visual  Communicator  or OVC,  and  the  1980s. And  so  is  a  giant  machine  that  you  play  with  hands  and feet  and  allows  artists  to create  and  finger  paint  with  light. Like  how  musicians  create and  explore  sound  with  their  instruments. The  name  of  the  instrument  arose from  a  guy  named  Bill  Sebastian, who's  a  friend  of  mine  now, who  collaborated  with  Sun  Ra and  made  the  thing  in  the  late  1970s  and  early  819, '80s  and  computers  at  that  time, this  system,  it  was  so  big, had  to  be  moved  by  trucks, so  they  did  not  tour  with  it, but  they  did  perform  in  the  early  '80s. And  this  is  one  of  the  footage  on the  Visual  Music  System  site  that  you  can  see them  interacting  with  the  OVC  and  there's  no  sound. I  just  quickly  grabbed  it  so  you  can  just  see there's  the  website  and  where  I  grabbed  the  video  from. Then  it's  me  recording  stopping. So  I  wanted  to  say this  little  story  because  it  is  kind  of  amazing. I  was  writing  about  when  I  discovered  the  OVC, I  think  it  was  From's book  on  Afro  futurism  piqued  my  interest. So  I  did  a  little  research, then  I  started  writing  about  it, and  his  daughter  said,  hey  dad, someone  is  writing  about  you  And  he  emailed  me. And  I  was  like,  what?  And  it turned  out  he  lived  in  Boston. Studio  was  in  Boston because  this  is  where  this  footage  is  shot. It  was  Massachusetts  College  of  Art  in  1980. He's  from  Boston.  He  was  nearby. And  at  some  point  I  worked  a  block  from  the  studio, so  I  was  there  a  lot. And  he  moved  the  OVC  from  this  situation  to  using an  Oculus  Rift  and  called  it  VC 3.0  or  OVC  three  D.  I  watched  the  development  of  that, Bill  and  then  it  goes  deeper. Because  Bill  was  a  musician, he  is  a  musician,  he's  still  alive. And  he  was  working  with  people  like  Arthur  Baker, who's  known  for  doing  Planet  Rock  with  Africa,  Mbada, doing  the  Electro  Funk  in  the  '80s, and  working  with  the  Johnson  crew. And  if  you  don't  know  who  they  are, Michael  Johnson  is  the  inventor  of  boys, not  boys,  Men,  a  new  addition  and  new  kids  on  the  block. So  we  have  a  connection  from  Sunra  to  new  kids  on the  block,  same  people  behind. And  he  was  only  short  time he  was  with  them  until  they  found  someone  else. But  the  history  is  just  amazing. Boston's  role  in  after  futurism, I  didn't  realize  until  I  met  Bill. But  Bill  had  really  worked closely  with  the  Sri  the  orchestra, so  it  was  really  cool  to  connect  there. This  is  also  around  the  same  time. This  is  Greg  Tate, the  late  Greg  Tate. He  interviewed  another  proto  Afrofuturist  named  Lz, early  hip  hop  practitioner, and  his  studio  was  called  Battle  Station. It's  described  as  a  whirlwind two  hour  tour  of  the  artist's  capacity  to conjure  complex  theorems  that  blur the  lines  between  subway  art  race  and  cultural  wars. Disease  the  language  and  illuminated  calligraphy  of the  14th  century  monks and  sculptural  high  techonic  weaponry. When  I  was  a  student  here  at  Georgia  Tech, they  decided  to  take  battle  station. He  had  just  died  in  2010  when  I  came  here. And  they  moved  it  to  LA.  And  they  had  a  big  show. So  I  went  from  Atlanta to  LA  to  see  the  show.  To  see  Battle  Station. He  coined  the  term  Gothic  futurism, he  claimed  at  the  time,  he's  not  an  Afrofuturist. He  has  his  own  theory, his  own  concepts  and  his  own  framework  that he  worked  from  me, Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston, fairly  recently  during  the  lockdown,  so  around  2021, this  is  a  show  that  was  a  MFA, but  it's  a  piece,  this  is  gashelier  avatar  that  he  wore. And  he  had  lots  of  things  in  the  studio. But  he  had  this  really  amazing, futuristic  even  though  he  doesn't  says  Afrofuturistic, very  Afrofuturistic  origin  myth  and  work  that  he  did. So  this  is  Ramzi,  all that's  before  the  term  afrofuturism  was  coined. Then  we  have  it  was  coined  in  1993  in  this  book, The  Discourse  of  Cyberculture  by  Mark  Dry, the  article,  the  essay  was  called  Black  to  the  Future. And  it  was  a  debate  between  Y  and black  science  fiction  writers  and cultural  critics  like  Samuel  Delaney,  Greg, and  Taro  Y  wrote  that  Afrofuturism treats  black  themes  and  concerns  in  the  context of  where  we  are  at  a  specific  moments  in  history. And  generally  as  a  signification that  appropriates  images  of  science, technology,  engineering,  art,  mathematics  in  the  future. And  that's  in  this  1993. And  he  talked  about  Sunray, talked  about  Ramel,  he  talked  about  all  that  stuff. I  read  the  book,  that  essay  for  the  first  time  when I  was  a  student  at  Georgia  Tech  and  then  found myself  sitting  across  from  Mark  Y  and the  Bronx  at  a  show  for  Black  speculative  fiction, talking  about  him  being a  white  guy,  coining  Afrofuturism. And  learned  from  him  that  he  did not  want  to  be  known  as  an  Afrofuturist. He  was  just  trying  to  come  up  with  a  name  to  describe what  he  was  seeing  in  black  cyber  culture at  the  time,  in  the  1990s. So  he's  a  very  nice  guy. I'm  not  trying  to  be  the  leader, I  don't  want,  I'm  a  writer,  I'm  a  journalist. And  so  it  was  good  to  have  lunch  with  the  guy. You  talk  about  that, that  happened  in  1993. And  then  Tasha  Womack, she  had  her  book,  came  out  also when  I  was  a  student  at  Georgia  Tech. And  she  lists  multiple  sub  genres around  Afrofuturism,  including  science  fiction, historical  fiction,  speculative  fiction,  fantasy, afrocentricity,  and  magical  realism with  non  Western  beliefs  and  rituals. So  we  have  John's  a  British  filmmaker  and  writer. His  fictional  film,  The  Last  Angel  of  History, follows  the  journey  of  a  character  called the  data  thief  who  travels  across  time  and  space in  search  of  a  cross  royals  where  he makes  an  archaeological  digs  looking  for fragments  of  history  and  technology  and the  search  of  code  that  holds  a  key  to  his  future. And  so,  that  is  a  film  from  199063, years  after  three  years  of  Mccoin  coming  out  of  the  UK. So  we  talk  about  Afrofuturism  within  the  United  States, but  then  it's  spread  by  this  time. In  just  three  years,  people  in  UK and  even  in  Africa  were already  thinking  about  the  stuff  too. Fs  work  and  then  there's  connections  to  other  things. Like  there's  a  new  futuristic  film coming  out  of  the  UK  this  year  called  The  Kitchen, and  you  haven't  seen  it  on  Netflix. It  is  definitely  a  mus se  in  terms  of  Afrofuturism,  again  from  the  UK, from  Daniel  Lua  and co  directed  with  one  of  his  collaborators, The  Boise's  Megascope  signified the  second  industrial  revolution, which  saw  rapid  scientific  discovery, standardization, and  mass  production  and  industrialization. A  comforus  data  thief  saw  a  shift  from mechanical  and  analog  electronic  technologies to  the  adoption  and  proliferation  of  digital  computers. And  now  we  have  AI,  or  artificial  intelligence, the  technology  behind  the  fourth  industrial  Revolution that  has  brought  with  it  opportunities  and  challenges. That's  where  we  are  today, the  fourth  Industrial  Revolution. Think  about  that.  We're  at  the  cusp  of  it. It's  begun  in  the  2010. Modern  Society  reached  a  tipping  point that  was  put  forward  by  AI. Around  that  time,  a  Kenyan  director  created  Pumsy. A  film  that  takes  place 35  years  after  World  War  Three  and shows  the  main  character  testing the  soil  sample  against  data  in  a  database. When  she  inhales  the  smell  of  the  soil, she's  plunged  into  a  dream. One  manifestation  of  AI  is a  Google  tool  based  on  dreaming  that's  going  to  come  up again  and  dates  back  from  early  in the  history  of  neural  networks that's  used  to  synthesize  visual  data. So  we  have  palms  and  data, and  then  we  got  this  thing  where  AI  and data  all  happening  around  the  same  time. Deep  dream,  which  I'll  talk  about came  out  of  Google  in  2014. The  dreams  inception,  the  film  came  out  around  that  time. I  was  a  student  here,  everybody  was  dreaming. So  that  became  a  big  deal  in  terms  of  Apha  futurism, the  test,  the  AI  was  actually, I  want  to  talk  about  this  book  first. In  2010,  the  book  A  Futurism  2.0  was published  on  the  cusp  of  the  AI  revolution  in  2015. In  this  book,  I  predicted the  technological  change  that  was  to  come. Chapter  two  in  that  book, A  Futurism  on  Web  3.0  or  the  Semantic  Web, supports  dynamic  graphical  tools and  networks  for  huge  spaces  of  data. Ai  referred  to  the  latter  as, as  large  language  models. So  I  was  thinking  about  that  in  2015. And  then  I  was  also  collaborating  with  IBM  on an  apt  virtual  three  D  space  in  second  life  in  2010. So  that's  a  snapshot  of  my  son  Ra. They  gave  to  give  me  virtual  land to  make  an  installation  based  on Aphafuturism  That  happened  in 2010  as  I  was  coming  into  Georgia  Tech  as  a  student. And  then  a  few  years  later,  the  chapter  two, realizing  something  was  happening and  that  Aphfuturistic  culture  production could  have  a  role  in that  development  was  happening  by  2010  through  2015. Then  now  we  are  Stephanie  Dinkins, the  test  of  AI  waters. A  couple  of  years  after  2015,  2017,  Stephanie  Dinkins. She  had  been  engaging in  conversations  with  a  humanoid  robot  named Bena  48  that  is supposed  to  be  capable  of independent  thought  and  emotion. She  also  created  a  multigenerational  memoir  of a  black  American  family to  from  the  perspective  of  custom, deep  learning,  artificial  intelligence. So  on  the  left  you  have  a 48  and  Stephanie  having  a  conversation. On  the  right  is  Stephanie's  own  AI,  not  the  only  one. And  then  here's  me, my  artwork,  this  is  at  the  Smithsonian  in  2021. Octavia  Butler's  typewriter  and Stephanie's  AI  in  the  same  space. We  all  came  together the  next  wave  after  Octavia  wave  number  three, really  at  the  Smithsonian as  part  of  the  futures  exhibition. And  I  had  11  portraits  or  11  images  in  this  exhibition. So  it  was  really  cool  to  be  able  to  touch  base  with Stephanie  Met  and  I  already  knew  her  by  that  time. If  we  look  at  AI  in  general, we're  really  talking  about a  small  circle,  the  yellow  circle. Generative  AI  or  deep  learning. Specifically,  we're  not  talking  about  AI  in  general, talking  about  very,  something  very  specific. And  it's  the  application  of  algorithms  to create  new  content  using  training  models. We're  not  talking  about  other  types  of  AI that's  out  there  being  very  specific, deep  learning,  where  I've been  doing  most  of  my  research  and  work. It's  a  subset  of  AI,  if  you  don't  know  that, that  uses  complex  algorithms  and deep  neural  networks  to  train  models. More  specifically,  I've  been  using generative  AI  to  create  unique  images that  signify  black  culture  in  life.  This  is  a  time  line. This  is  also  the  timeline  of my  interactions  with  AI  as  an  artist. So  the  very  first  images  that  were  created  were  in 2014  with  generative  adversarial  networks. This  is  a  timeline  from  2014  to  the  present. If  you  don't  know  what  Gans  are, they  generate  random  images  as  an  example. Again,  it's  trained  on  images  of  cats  and can  random  images  of  cats  as  a  result. And  next  after  that  with  Deep  Dreams in  2015  out  of  that's  Google. And  it  uses  AI  to  find  and enhance  patterns  and  images  through  algorithms, thus  creating  a  dream  like  appearance, reminiscent  of  a  psychedelic  experience  that deliberately  processes  images  neural  style  transfer. And  that's  where  of the  nine  years  I've  been  working  with  AI, that's  where  I  spend  most  of  my  time. Until  recently,  prompt  based  AI  didn't  exist  yet. Neural  style  transfer  takes  two  images, a  content  image  like  a  photo  and a  style  reference  image  like  a  graphic  fabric  pattern. And  blends  them  together  so the  output  image  looks  like  it's painted  in  the  style  of  the  style  reference  image. Then  we  have  artificial  intelligence, Creative  adversarial  network. Or  Can.  Or  AI. Can.  I  know  I  can.  I  don't  know. It's  autonomous  artist  bought  that, learns  from  existing  styles  and  aesthetics  and can  generate  innovative  images  of  its  own. It's  2017  and  then  text. The  image  tools  such  as  Ali  in  Mid  Journey  uses  AI to  understand  words  and  images  and then  convert  them  to  unique  images. And  that's  now  on  this  other  side, that's  where  all  the  trouble  came  in. Chat  GPT,  that's  nobody  cared,  up  until  2021. Now  we  got  sag,  Atra  and  the  writers  scale. Everybody's  up  in  arms  about  AI because  of  that  particular  development  in  2021. So  this  is  my  tool  box, this  is  what  I  use, 2016-2021  I  use  a  generative  AI  method called  deep  style  or  image  style  transfer, allows  me  to  apply  different  styles  to  images  I  upload  to create  an  diverse  range  of  artistic  representations. And  this  mode  I  can  play  around  with vary  settings  to  generate  unique  and  interesting  images. And  then  today  I  combine  deep  style with  generative  AI  text  image, especially  using  Mid  Journey  is  my  favorite  tool  that generates  images  from  natural language  descriptions  called  prompts. And  I'm  right  on  the  cusp  of  getting  funding  to  create my  own  model  or  customize a  model  on  a  different  project,  but  kind  of  relate. So  this  is  kind  of  what  I  So  deep  Dream  is  where I  started,  Dolly  Mid  Journey. And  runway  Runway  ML  stands  for  Machine  Learning. So  runway  ML,  text  and  image  prompts  a  Photoshop  and Illustrators  to  all  Adobe  Creative  Suite  tools  now  have generative  AI  built  in  so  you  really  can't  escape  it. And  then  chat  EPT  of  course  and  things like  It  programs  like  Canva, which  is  kind  of  K  12  for  teachers  now  has AI  generator  built  in  that  also  is trying  to  have  a  little  option so  you  don't  have  to  use  chat  EVT  because  those are  be  used  for  students  who  obviously  can't just  use  these  other  tools  for  really  important  reasons. So  in  2021,  Greg  Tate, the  artist  writer  and  cultural critic  I  mentioned  earlier, who  helped  usher  in  the  first  wave of  Afro  futurism  passed  away. And  in  honor  of  Greg, I  use  deep  style  and image  editing  to  create  his  portrait  on  the  left, shut,  and  put  it  on  social  media. Shortly  after  that, the  Museum  of  Contemporary  African  Disperin  Arts, or  Kata,  asked  for  permission  to  scale up  the  image  and  display  it  in Brooklyn  as  an  outdoor  mural. So  what  you're  seeing  is  the  original  image  and  then  how it  looks  in  Brooklyn  on  the  wall.  It's  on  vinyl. So  it  took  about  6  hours  for  them  to  put  it  up, and  now  we're  talking  about  putting  it  in  Dayton, Ohio,  where  Greg  is  from,  and  in  Harlem. So  it  may  actually  be  in  two  or  three  places  beside  that. So  it's  been  there  supposed  to  be  for  one  year. In  fact,  it  was  supposed  to  be  up  for a  couple  of  months  and  then  it  was up  and  then  people  were  like, I  saw  it  a  year  later. I'm  like,  It's  still  up  Like  I  thought  it  was  down  so  and then  famous  people  would  go  by  and do  and  then  if  I  didn't  know  who  they  were, I  got  tagged,  you  know, some  famous  person  standing  in  front. And  so  this  guy  who  I  don't  know, but  he's  holding  a  new  Tasha  Wolmeck  book and  standing  in  front  of  the  great  tape  girl. A  lot  of  people  see  it  every  day. Didn't  realize,  even  though  my  name  is  on  it, they  don't  read  the  placard  and  oh,  you  did  that. I  see  it  every  day.  So,  you  know, I  have  former  students. I  took  my  girl  on  a  date. I  drove  her  by  the,  my  teacher. Did  that  like  did it  help  your  date?  Like  what  is  going  on? So  this  has  been  very, that's  a  really  amazing  thing  when  it  goes  out  into the  community  to  see  how this  stretches  out  into  the  world. But  Greg  Tate's  family,  his  grandson, went  to  the  school  right  next  door  to  this  building, so  daughter  was  tagging  me  in  photos  of  the  grandson. I  met  his  sister  also  met  his  brother, the  family  who  lived  in  the  neighborhood, so  the  family  was  involved. So  it's  still  involved. I  get  invited  to  the  big  celebration  at Lincoln  Center  with  his  band,  Burnt  Sugar  Orchestra. And  they  projected  this  image  on  the  back  at  some  point, and  the  band  got  together  for  a  reunion  in  front  of  this. And  I  came,  I  was  also  in  town  for Afrofuturism  exhibition  at  Cardegie  Hall, but  I  came  to  Brooklyn  to  be  part  of a  historic  moment  with  rectates  band getting  together  for  the  first  time  since  his  death. Very  emotional.  A  lot  of  tears but  all  standing  in  front  of  the  mural. So  that's  I  and  what  it  can  do  in  terms  of  impact. And  this  is the  mural Eta. So  by  the  time  NFT's  became  popular, we're  talking  about  in  the  last  three  years, I  had  amassed  hundreds  of  AIG  generated  images, even  before  prompted  tools  had  entered  the  mainstream. So  for  two  years,  I  minted  several  of these  images  such  as  these while  seeing  my  earlier  prediction  aim on  Web  Three  Po  become  a  reality  Bitcoin and  all  that  stuff  that was  happening  around  the  same time  I  had  all  these  images. A  new  aesthetic  emerged  in  the  innovation  of the  digital  art  form  from machines  learning  visual  concepts, and  from  artists  that  use different  generative  AI  tools  to combine  different  styles  in  one  image. Ai  is  what  I  call  generative  AI is  driving  new  understandings, expansions,  and  amplifications  of  modern  art  forms. The  text  to  image  process  has evolved  from  using  text  prompts  to  calling  up data  from  training  models  to  remix art  movements  such  as  cubism  to  create  unique  work. In  this  slide  shows  the  process from  inputting  prompts  and  calling  up AI  generated  poetry  or  texts  inspired  by  Afro  futurism. I  had  this  vision  of a  funky  Afro  diva  androids  and  I  wanted  chatPT, write  story  about  it,  a  poem  about  it, write  a  poem  about  funky  Afro  diva  android. And  it  did  it  really  good. So  then  I  took  the  poem  like  parts  of  the  poem  and  made, and  then  that's  what  Mi  Journey  came  up  with. I  was  taking  the  prompts  from the  poem  and  then  terms  prompts in  mid  journey  and  then  created  these  images which  are  very  popular  in  social  media. This  is  a  anatomy  of  a  prompt. The  generators  run  on  prompts. Of  course,  the  more  layered  a  prompt  is, the  more  unique  the  results  will  be. Artists  can  use  their  art  knowledge  to  develop,  refine, and  optimize  AI  generated  text prompts  to  ensure  they  are  engaging  to  viewers. Being  unique  for  me  is  important. I'm  actually  not  trying  to  press  a  button, I'm  actually  trying  to  create  a  new  static. And  my  prompts  often  include  the  subject, which  is  the  what  in  the  image. The  style  refers  to characteristics  that  describe  the  artwork, such  as  color  or  even  movements  such  as  cubism. I  have  here  in  the  style  of  Apha, futurism,  cyborgs  and  robots. Composition  refers  to  how the  elements  of  the  image  should  be  combined  or  arranged. And  it's  all  part  of  the  prompt  boosters  or  enhancers. Those  are  words  that  improve the  quality  or  relevance  of  the  prompt. It  helps  users  create  better  prompts, making  it  easier  to  get the  specific  responses  or  outputs  they're  looking  for. Really  important  in  terms  of  making unique  images  and  getting  away  from some  of  the  dangers  and  some  of  the  problems. And  just  letting  the  machine  do  it. Now  I'm  calling  this  visual storytelling  3.0  Everything  is 3.0  It  visual  story and  telling  in  general  helps people  make  sense  of  complex  data. It  elicits  emotion  and  increases information  retention  using  prompts, modes  and  options  in  chat BT  and  mid  journey  version six  because  version  six  is  bringing  it. And  that's  now  allows me  to  generate  stories  with  corresponding  visuals. In  2023,  I  had  an  idea  to  create  a  story  about Afro  Featurism  2.0  and  AI  from the  point  of  view  of  a  girl  time  traveler. This  is  my  prompt  to  chat. Bt  was  150  word  abstract  about  Afrofuturism 2.0  and  AI  from the  perspective  of  a  girl  time  traveler  from  the  future. And  it  gave  me  a  cool  story,  just  like  before. I  took  pieces  of  the  story and  inserted  them  as  prompts  into  mid  journey. And  then  it  gave  me  a,  this  is  Aa. And  Aa  stands  for  Artificial  Youth  Algorithm. I  was  able  to  create  basically a  comic  book  about  Aya  and  Aa's  travels. From  the  story  using  mid  journey. In  the  sprawling  metropolis  of  Nia  Akra, where  a  neon  lights  flicker  and  hover, cars  zoom  past  skyscrapers lived  a  remarkable  young  woman  named  Aya. Aya  was  a  girl, a  dancer  who  effortlessly merged  hip  hop  moves  or  futuristic  twists, captivating  audiences  with  her  electrifying  performances. But  there  was  more  to  Aya  than  just  her  dance  skills. She,  she  was  a  time  traveler  from  the  future. A  rebel  on  the  mission  to  rewrite  history. Born  in  the  world  ravaged  by corporate  greed  and  social  inequality, Aya  belonged  to  a  resistance  movement  known  as  Solync. Their  objective  was  to  restore  justice  and equality  to  a  society  consumed  by  oppressive  systems. Remember  this  is  Chat  GPT  writing  the  story. One  fateful  night,  as  Aya  immersed  herself  in pulsating  beats  of  a  hidden  underground  hip  hop  club, She  encountered  a  mysterious  man  named  DJ, C,  phase  C,  phase  revealed  to Aya  that  he  possessed  the  ability  to create  temporal  ripples  through  his  beats. Together  they  realized  the potential  of  their  collaboration. A  fusion  of  Aya's  mesmerizing  dance  moves and  C  phase  time  bending  soundscape. Imagine  that.  Visual  storytelling 3.0  I  really  like  instead  of  Jane  on  records  is  De  Jane. I  love  that.  And  so  it's kind  of  a  call  response  between chat  GVT  and  mid  journey.  Mid  journey  is  produced. I  give,  I  take  it  from  chat  GVT  and  put  it  in the  mid  journey  and  reinterpret  it  somewhat. It  was  initially  neo  Tokyo  now is  Neagana  'cause  I'm  like  Tokyo. So  no  Okra  'cause  you  know, So  I  went  in  No,  no. You  know,  that's  not  exactly  it. But  then  most  of  it  was  really  chat.  Pt  was  great. I  had  a  teenager  who  was  very  anti  AI,  read  the  story. It  was  like,  oh,  I  would  like  to  see  that  movie. I  have  a  little  feeling  that  I, you  know,  really  got  into  the  story. So  yeah,  so  this  is  what  it  looks like  inside  behind  the  hood on  Mid  journey  model because  this  stuff  isn't  free  anymore. This  is  version  six.  The  most  recent  version, what  I  love  about  it  is remixing  is  one  of  the  main  chapters, main  sections  of  my  book. And  there's  a  remix  mode  here, so  there's  language,  maybe  not even  on  purpose  back  behind,  mid  journey, that  I  can  turn  on  when  I'm  generating  my  images, which  I  think  is  really  cool,  I  don't. Okay,  so  this  is in  the  last  couple  of  weeks  for  a  black  history  month. I  started  out  the  month  of  February  with sci  fi  writers  Octavia  Butler  and  Gloria  Naylor. I  hadn't  done  a  portrait  of  Gloria  Naylor. What  I  loved  is  that, and  Mama  Dad  was  one  of my  favorite  books  as  a  young  person. But  it  produced  a  portrait  that  looked  like  her, which  I  did  have  to  sort  of  mold  it, so  the  nose  got  molded, the  cheekbones  got  changed. I  added  a  dimple,  because  she  had  dimples, So  I  did  Photoshop  it  a  bit,  but  overall, it  looked  like  Gloria  Naylor, which  I  was  very  happy  about. And  then  I  decided  to use  the  Pan  option  in  mid  journey  to  take a  piece  of  a  quote  from  the  book  and place  Gloria  Naylor  in  her  story,  Mama  Day. So  I  took  what's  in  bold  here. She  could  walk  through a  lightning  storm  without  being  touched. Grab  a  bolt  of  lightning  and  the  palm  of  her  hand put  it  in  there  with  the  pan  feature. And  now  the  lightning  again  started  here, added  and  using  text  from  the  book, that's  the  final  image. It  reflects  the  capability  of  the  general  I and  ap  futurism  2.0 as  well  as  the  knowledge  of  the  human  using  it. I  imagine  the  author  of  Mama  Day in  a  scene  from  our  own  book. And  the  NAI  tool  gave  me  the  ability  to  experiment, iterate,  and  explore  different  options. And  I  learn  something  new  almost  every  day. This  is  visual  storytelling 3.0  because  it  taps  into  the  semantic  web. Which  is  a  web  of  data that's  processed  by  machines  such  as generative  AI  to  visually manifest  some  of  the  magical  realism  from  Mama  Day. Thank  you,  Natrice.  That  was  amazing. And  I  had  questions  and you  actually  answered  a  lot  of  them. So  that  means  you  all  get  to  ask  questions. And  I'm  not  going  to  hog  this  time. So  let  me  ask,  would  people  be  comfortable  coming  up  to the  microphone  here  or  would you  prefer  that  I  came  and  brought  it  to  you? Sort  of  an  open  question. If  anyone  would  be  comfortable coming  up  to  the  microphone  here? No,  No  one  wants  to.  All  right. Let  me  come  and  bring  it  around.  Does  anyone have  any  questions  for  Dr.  Gaskins? Okay.  Okay.  Oh,  yep. You  guys,  you're  willing  to  come up  to  the  microphone?  Excellent.  Thank  you. All  right.  I  just  want  to  say  hi  Dr.  Gaskins. I'm  a  big  fan.  I  really  enjoy  your  work. I'm  actually  a  professor  here teaching  within  architecture. And  we're  trying  to  work  on  using AI  tools  to  envision  more  architectural  future. So  I  definitely  want  to  connect  with you  after  I  just  want  to  throw  that  out  there. But  a  question  I  have  is obviously  AI  has  seen different  tools  come  to  the  surface. We're  focusing  more  now  on mid  journey  dolly  and  chat  GBT. What  do  you  think  about  the  future  of  those  tools? Where  do  you  think  we're  headed  with  that? What  future  tools  outside  of  those do  you  think  will  start  to  come  into  play? Yeah,  I  think  so. I've  found  out  that  open  AI, the  mixed  all  they're  willing  for  fee, for  money  to  customize  their  models. And  I  love  that  idea, so  I  put  in  for  a  competition, but  they're  willing  to  give  $100,000 to  people  to  customize  the  database. This  is  a  question  put  to  me  as  a  Phd  student here  at  Georgia  Tech  from  one  of  the  professors was  what  happens  when  you  build  it  from  the  ground up  from  people  who  don't  normally, not  the  ones  developing  the  technology. So  that's  what  I  want  to  explore is  how  do  we  develop  our  own  not  just  tools, but  the  large  language  models  that  the  tools  are  using to  generate  the  images  and  the  text. What  happens  when  we  develop  that  first? And  it  gets  very  dangerous  because  I doesn't  talk  about  bias  and  stereotyping, but  it  even  hits  things  like  Dolly A  paper  came  out  recently  in  the  last  year,  I  think, where  they  used  prompt  portrait  of a  lawyer  and  it  was  all  white  men  except  for  mid  journey, mid  journey  was  all  men,  it  was  all  men. Mid  journey.  And  doll,  there  was a  little  bit,  but  I  tested. I  did  the  same  test. I  went  and  tried  all.  But  then when  you  do  Portrait  of  a  felon, Lee  did  something  very  interesting. Three  apes  and  a  black  man. Three  apes  and  a  black  man.  Mid  journey. When  I  typed  in  Robert  Johnson, I  was  doing  for  a  black  history  month  last  year. I  was  so  disturbed  I  deleted  it  right  away. But  shouldn't,  I  should  have probably  saved  it  and  actually  reported  it, but  it  gave  me  three  versions  of a  blues  musician  and  one  ape  blues  musician. What  is  this  between  black  men  and  apes? That's  the  danger  when you  don't  have  control  of  the  model, because  the  model  holds  just  as  much  biases as  the  humans  who  developed  it. Until  we  develop  our  own  models, then  we're  going  to  have  those  problems  keep  popping  up, those  biases  and  things  keep  popping  up. So  as  a  future  project  is  not  just  using  existing  mods, but  creating  ones  of  our  own. Not  really  like.  Thank  you  so  much. Thank  you  for  the  real  exciting  talk. I'm  says  I'm  a  professor  here  in mechanical  engineering,  the  thing  I'm  working  on, but  as  someone  trained  in  mechanical  engineering, it's  something  missing  from  our  curriculum  is  how  to bring  art  and  society. Engineering  is  not  separate  from  society, but  we'd  like  to  pretend  it's  frictionless  in  a  vacuum. As  someone  who's  an  educator, someone  who's  really  thought  deeply  about  the  connections between  technology  and  society,  I  was  curious. I'm  asking  you  to  do  my  job  a  little  bit, but  what  are  ways  that  I  can  bring  these  concepts  into, you  know,  a  class  about  physics  or  dynamics? I  am  trying  by  asking  students  to  use  AI  to  generate  art, about  engineering  concepts,  or  find a  historical  figure  and  write about  them  like  a  fake  interview,  right? But  I  was  curious  how  you've  done  this  and  how  you've brought  how  you've  tied technology  and  education  together. So  the  week  before  Covid  hit, I  was  in  Los  Angeles. I  was  in  Long  Beach  in  a  middle  school  doing a  workshop  on  bio  mechanical  engineering and  Afrofuturism  with  middle  school  students. It  was  first  of  teacher  professional  development  day. And  then  they  watched me  do  it  with  the  middle  school  students. In  the  classroom,  the  kids  got  different  models of  both  speculative  and  real  examples  of  cyborgs, people,  parts  of  their  body  to having  some  sort  bio  mechanical  invention. And  then  they  had  to  prototype their  own  using  found  objects. And  so  they  went  through  a  whole  process. And  then  underneath  all  of  that  I  was  using something  that  I  pulled  from hip  hop  culture  in  terms  of  design  thinking, but  from  a  cipher  hip  hop  cipher  point of  view  so  that  they  were  formed  ciphers. And  then  they  would  do  design  thinking and  mapping  in  those  ciphers. And  they  would  do  peer  reviews  in  the  ciphers. And  one  of  the  things that  I  was  noticing  in  this  particular  group, this  is  middle  school  students, the  girls  were  just  on  fire. I  got  pictures  of  them.  They're  all like  the  boys  were  like. And  there  was  like,  You  got  to  get up  and  do  stuff  with  the  girls  I'm  like, Why  on  the  trip  back  to  the  airport  She  said, because  he  was  you  teaching  it really  I  was  like  I  just saw  them  just  like  they  too,  and  I  never  see  that. And  I've  done  making electronics  projects  and  things  like that  in  middle  school  and high  school  students  for  a  long  time. And  usually  it's  the  girls  who  have to  do  extra  work  to  get  them  more  involved. But  they  were,  and  I  was  like, look  at  that,  somehow  it  emboldened  them. And  they  were.  But  the  idea  of the  cipher  is  because  the  cipher  is  democratic. There's  call  and  response.  Everybody  is  equal. The  teachers  getting  the  cipher. The  students  getting  the  cipher. Everybody  has  a  voice.  We  did  the  cipher  with kids  on  an  Art  AI  robotics  class with  Lester  University  where  I  work. We  did  it  with  high  school  students. There  were  kids  in  their  mask and  you  couldn't  hear  them  because  it was  2030  people  in  the  room  and  I  didn't  force  it. But  by  the  end  of  those  couple  of  weeks, you  always  heard  everybody. They  got  more  and  more  confident, more  and  more  comfortable, more  and  more  feel  like  they  were  seen  and  that they  had  a  voice  and  a  place  in  the  circle. So  using  these  type  of  things, it's  a  way  to  bring  them  into the  spaces  where  it's  usually  foreign. And  they're  usually  not  getting any  representation,  which  is  important. So  now  how  do  we  do  that  with  AI? And  we're  exploring  that  through  this  idea  of building  a  large  language  model  that's  built, doing  some  of  those  techniques. But  that's  my  answer  to  your  question. Thank  you  so  much.  S  Hello,  I'm  Jason. I  work  here  at  the  library. Mine  is  really  from  a  more  personal  perspective and  I  was  wondering  if  I  could  get  your  thoughts. It's  really  interesting  to  me  the  way  that  you talk  about  this,  so  musically,  right? And  so  you  mentioned  Sun  Ra and  you  talk  about  it  being  a  call  in response  between  the  models. And  what  you  were  just  talking  about  with  the  cipher, I  think  is  a  great  intro  to  what  I  was going  to  ask  you  is  like  I  kind  of wanted  to  know  your  thoughts  about  what strikes  me  about  all  this  is  the  process  is  very  similar, it  looks  like  to  like  building  tracks,  building  hip  hop. Right.  You  go  through  existing  culture, you  piece  sample  together.  Exactly,  yeah. And  you  mentioned  Africa  Bumbada  and  you  know, the  craft  work  sample  and  stuff  in  that. So  what  are  your  thoughts  on  that? Is  it  just  like  a  natural  thing  that  we  do, or  is  it  that  we're  so  influenced  by  that, that  you  know,  this  is  how we're  doing  this.  It's  fascinating. I  think  the  same  culture  they  created, collage  created  the  sample  remixing  came  from,  you  know, when  they  started  to  take  African  art  collage  and going  through  grabbing  from  newspapers  and  posters and  creating  new  compositions that  are  in  museums  all  around  the  world. That's  the  remix.  That's  when people  started  chopping  up  stuff. Then  Rome  Bearden  came  in and  did  collages  around  black  life. He  had  a  big  show  at  Emory  when  I  was  a  student on  remixing  the  Odyssey  and  collage. And  it  was  at  Emory  when  I  was  here  at  Georgia  Tech. So  I  went  to  saw  that  show  and I've  been  following  beds,  working. It  has  been  heavily  influencing my  work  since  I  was  a  teenager, since  I  was  a  high  school  student. So  I've  really  been  in  tuned to  what  Romer  Bearden  was  doing. So  that  chopping  up  is  subversive. It's  about  throwing  out the  playbook  disruptive  fragments. Taking  all  these  fragments  of  a  broken, all  that's  the  time  that  folks  were  in. But  some  of  that,  just  like  I  showed, Mid  Journey  had  the  remix  mode  and the  variation  that's  being  built  into  the  tools  but  not directly  and  not  in a  very  intentional  way  just because  it  remixing  comes  out  of  remix  culture. The  developers  who  are  working on  these  tools  are  thinking  about remix  culture  when  they're  creating  these  tools. It  shows  up  in  some  ways. I'm  being  very  specific  about  it, this  is  where  remixing  is. And  we  can  look  at  Grandmaster  Flash, we  can  look  at  all  the  things in  hip  hop  around  the  remix. And  we  can  also  look  at  improvisation, which  comes  out  of  jazz. There's  also  a  research  that  shows  they  did MRI's  on  the  brains  of  jazz  musicians  and  rappers. And  the  same  part  of  their  brain  is  lit  up, which  is  for  language,  For  conversation, we  talk  about  calling  response. So  we  talk  about  that's  a  language  thing, it's  a  communication  thing. How  does  that  play  a  role  in  how  we  develop  technology? How  does  it  play  a  role  in how  I  interact  with  the  technology? And  I  saw  it  as  call  in  response to  the  point  where  sometimes  a  little  suspicious, I  put  in  a  prompt  and  it  gives  me  what  I  want  almost  too, like  it  knows  I'm  coming  because  I  do  this  every  day. So  maybe  I'm  helping  to  train  the  AI, the  model  that  I'm  using, because  I  can  evaluate,  you  know,  that  as  well. So  the  ideas  that  I  talk  about, they're  coming  out  of  a  culture  that's  been  modern. And  we  talk  about  these  industrial  pods, now  we're  the  fourth  industrial  revolution. And  at  the  cusp  of  that,  but  we're  also  passing, it's  a  continuations,  a  continuum. It's  not  something  that  starts  and  stops, it  just  builds  on  the  neck. So  I  think  that's  why  we  see there's  some  technical  things  that  it's  not  like  music sampling  the  Google  and  20  right  before  the  pandemic. I  said,  well,  Google  came  up  with  a  deep  dream, and  that's  for  visual  images. But  I  bet  they  did  something  for  music. And  they  did,  it  was  called  Cy. If  you  have  the  wherewithal  and  you  have  the  resources, it  gave  you  the  recipe  for  building  your  cyn  box. And  it  was  a  way  of  building  AI, such  that  you  can  bring  in  different  instruments in  the  studio  and  mix  it. Just  like  you  would  mix  a  visual  image. Instead,  the  piano  and  violin would  merge  and  become  a  new  instrument. Or  it  would  get  notes  between  the  notes. So  I  got  up  to  a  point  where  I  built it  and  that  was  right  before  I was  ready  to  program  lockdown. I  don't  have  that  particular  stuff  at  home, like  computer  and  all  that  stuff. To  program  it,  it's  still  in  a  box, a  toe  box,  waiting  for  me  to  do  that, But  that  was  Google's  entry  point for  exploring  that  from  the  music  side. So  it's  very  much  music, Definitely,  it's  a  longer  conversation about  all  these  overlaps. But  yeah,  definitely  there. So  first  of  all,  this  has  been  really  interesting. Especially  like  you've  taken  a  lot  of  AI  art  in ways  that  I  never  really  thought  was  possible. But  it's  interesting  examining your  process  and  how  you  go  about  things  is different  from  a  lot  of  the  concerns I've  heard  about  AI  art  and  the  things  that we  have  to  deal  with  with  generative  images and  prompts  and  text. So  how  do  you anticipate  things  will  go moving  forward  with  things  like, there's  so  much  concern  about  plagiarism, about  art  theft,  all  that  kind  of  stuff. How  do  you  anticipate things  will  change  to  address  that  moving  forward? And  how  do  you  kind  of  address  that  in  your  own  work? So  when  collage  happened, you're  chopping  up  other  people's  work,  right? Other  photographers  work  and the  put  together  and  create  a  composition. But  collages,  there's  no  attribution. Hm.  Romer  Baird  and  all  these  Picassos, these  are  all  the  artists  I  took from  or  photographers  whose  work  I  took  to make  this  collage  and their  works  are  in  major  museums  around  the  world. What  the  US  government  did  is  to  create a  fair  use  to  protect  artists  who  were  remixing. Instead  of  a  magazine  or  ten  for  a  collage, we're  using  thousands  of  magazines. But  is  there  a  difference? Now,  if  I  want  to  copy  your  work,  that's  different  copy. That's  been  around  long  before  AI and  it  will  be  long  before  after  people  will  copy. What  I'm  talking  about  is  a  process. That  process  is  very  similar  to collages  in  terms  of  the  creating, using  data  from  different  places. The  more  unique  the  prompt, the  more  unique  the  output. And  so  that's  a  different  thing, Most  people  aren't  artists. So  when  I  did  a  project  with  N, I  did  a  portrait  and  I  shared  it  because  they  wanted  me to  shared  it  for  our  Geneva  Summit,  whatever. So  I  shared  it. Somebody  said,  oh,  I'm  not  an  artist, I  can  make  that  I  said,  whoa,  good  luck. I  don't  I  mean,  I'm  not  here  to  half  a  day  past. And  that  person  said,  look,  I  came  up  with it  but  that's  not  what  you  does  exactly. He  was  making  a  claim  that  he  could do  without  being  an  artist, and  I  was  making  a  claim,  Good  luck. Maybe  you  can,  maybe  you  can. I  don't  know,  but  he  couldn't. And  of  course,  the  fact  that  he came  back  and  admitted,  here's  what  I  did, but  it's  not  what  you  did,  you  know  like it  was  the  moment.  Mm  hmm. So  I  think  there's  two  things  happening. There's  the  acknowledgment  that our  artists  who  are  artists  trained  and  whatever  are just  in  there  are  using  genitive  I  and  then  there  are a  non  artist  who  can't  do  it, but  use  a  tool  to  try  to  figure  it  out. Mm  hm. Now  I,  I  troll people  like  I'll  go  and  something  that's  hyper. I  don't.  And  I'll  go  and  look, oh,  this  looks  just  like  a  photo. No  dumb  the  eyes  down  here. I'm  always  like  nope,  nope,  nope. Look  at  the  finger,  the  fingers splayed  out,  that  no,  that's  not. I'm  always  the  one  the  two  reflections in  there  is  not  the  same. Like  I'm  very  like,  if  you  want  to  make  that  claim, then  now  I'm  going  to  come, I  work  with  this  stuff  every  day. So  there's  a  AI  literacy  piece. Mm  hm. Just  like  it  is  important  to  be  an  artist, it's  also  important  to  be  literate.  And  this  stuff. Now  want  to  get  to  Atlanta, I  for  the  first  time  ever  at  TSA, you  got  to  put  your  face,  there's  AI  in  the  TSA. They  didn't  need  my  ID  or my  passport  or  anything  else  or  my  boarding  pass. I  had  to  look  into  and  had  to  verify  my  identity. And  we  know  that  there's  been  situations  where black  women  have  not  hit  the  AI's  failed. So  what  happens?  Can  I  get  on  a  plane  now? If  they're  only  going  to  take  and it  fails,  then  I'm  stuck. Mm  hm. So  we  know  the  dangers,  we've  seen  all  this  stuff. Well,  this  is  a  reality, not  just  on  the  art  side, it's  everywhere.  Well,  where's  the  literacy? Where's  the  knowledge  of  looking  at  how  to  do this  in  an  ethical  way  or  in  a  way  that, you  know,  I  use  my  artwork,  I  use  my  sketches. It's  fun,  I  threw  it  in  there  and  then  I share  it  with  people  and  Chaka  shows  up. It  was  really  good,  you  know, like,  and  then  I  freak  out. But,  you  know,  when  Vernon  Red decided  to  step  onstage  with  me after  my  keynote,  I  was  freaking  out. My  19  year  old  person  was  like, oh  my  God,  it's  Ronnie  Red. But  he  was  like,  I  could  tell  she  was an  artist  because  all  of  her  portraits, they  all  have  five  fingers. So  she  was  doing  something  else  on  top  of whatever  because  she  never  had  misshapen  fingers. That's  how  you  could  tell  there's  an artist  behind  the  images. So  we  are  at  a  credit  point  for  all  these  issues, copyright  bias  and  stereotypes. All  those  things  are,  you  know, I  talked  about  the  apes  and  the  mint. You  know,  when  I  did  the  test,  that's the  reality  we  have  to  confront. That's  why  I'm  saying  we  need  to  build  like our  own  large  language  models or  even  smaller  language  models  first. Absolutely.  And  instead  of  just  taking  in  the  tools, because  we  still  have  the  issues  from the  previous  times  it's  built into  the  system  and  we  haven't  fixed  that  yet. So  there's  so  many  new  things  and things  that  we  have  to  look at  when  developing  this  stuff. We  can  make  the  same  mistakes  we made  before  with  all  the  other  technologies  where  we  can use  what  we  learned  to  develop  something  that  is  actually helpful  for  humans  and  not  hurtful  to  humans. Yeah,  thank  you  so  much  for your  perspective  on  ethics  and  everything  else. I  really  appreciate  it.  Hi,  I'm  a  student  here. I'm  a  freshman  and  I  was  recommended  to  come  here. We're  taking  a  class  on  Octavia  Butler  Semester. I'm  fascinated  by  the  way  that  you've discussed  your  methodology  and  ethics  around  this, but  I  was  you  discussed  the  Sag  Afra  and  all  of  that. I  am  a  little  worried  about the  young  girls  that  you  meet  who  will  learn to  write  stories  through  AI  instead of  learning  to  write  stories  themselves. I  was  wondering  if  you  had  a  rhetoric about  the  weird  thing  is  how  I  came  into  this  at  all. I  taught  AP  computer  science  principals to  high  school  students  in  Boston. And  they  were  all  art  students  because high  school  for  the  visual  performing  arts, every  student  had  an  arts  major. I  was  working  with  a  I  had  to pitch  to  the  college  board  curriculum for  an  arts  based  computer  science  curriculum that  I  hope  kids  wouldn't  drop. This  is  an  elective,  it's  a  year  long  course, and  an  exam  at  the  end  because  it's  AP. Last  week  I  got  invited  because right  now  the  R  Design  AP College  Board,  it's  blocking  AI. But  they're  putting  together  an advisory  board  and  they're  like  natric. We  want  you  to  be  on  the  advisory  board. I'm  like,  hey  full  circle  taught  it. Now  I'm  going  to  be  on the  advisory  board  to  actually  make policy  decisions  about  how they're  going  to  introduce  AI,  it's  real. And  they're  acknowledging  that they're  recruiting  people  who  work  with  AI, who  are  artists  who  can  help  them visualize  all  the  issues  that  come into  including  copyright  and  IP for  AP  Computer,  APR  and  design. And  I'm  sure  it's  going  to  hit  other  in  the  writing. On  the  humanities  side, all  the  federal  agencies  are  now funding  projects  with  AI  involved. I  was  a  panelist  for  the National  Endowment  for  the  Humanities and  looked  at  a  bunch  of  applications. And  I  know  people  who  are applying  again  for  the  new  round. Ai  is  everywhere, but  they're  trying  to  do  it  in  a  smart  way, which  is  US  Copyright  Office has  a  bunch  of  meetings  I  was  part  of. I  was,  I  was  one  of the  presenter  to  talk  about  my  issues. Creative  Commons  had  an  open  letter  to  Congress to  fight  for  the  rights  of  artists  who  use  of  AI  I  made. I  said,  why  is  my  name  at  the  top  of the  list  I  signed  on,  but  I  didn't  sign  on. I  wasn't  the  first,  I  was  at the  end,  but  I'm  right  there. Right  in  the  top  of  that.  That  went  to  Congress. And  there's  been  media  companies  like Adobe  paying  people  like  me to  come  and  meet  and  talk  to  them  about  their  work. Microsoft  tomorrow,  I'm  going  to  meta, you  know,  it's  just  that  thing, everyone's  trying  to  figure  it  all  out. And  I  think  right  now  we're  at that  point  where  if  we  get  hold  of  it, we  can  deal  with  some  of  those issues  of  IP  and  copyright. We  also  got  to  not  hurt  the artists  who  are  actually  using it  in  creative  ways.  The  non  artists. I  don't  really  care  about  them.  I  challenge  them. A  researchers  asked  me, what  happens  if  someone's  taking your  work  well,  Good  luck. You  know,  like  that  guy  that  tried  it, I  have  very  specific  things  I'm  doing  in  my  prompt. The  prompt  engineering  thing  is  a  job. It's  a  skill.  There's  things  that  I'm  doing. That's  why  I  talk  about  the  anatomy  of  a  prompt. What's  the  anatomy  of  a  story  in  the  new  space? I'm  not  asking  the  same. What's  posing  for  students? What's  the  anatomy  of  a  story? What  are  the  important  points where  the  creativity  is  unique? So  your  story  is  different  from  the  next, and  the  next,  and  the  next,  that's  the  conversation. We  have  tools,  they're  everywhere. But  how  we  use  them  is the  same  as  how  we  use  all  the  stuff  before. It's  a  new  literacy,  but we're  not  even  teaching  people  the  old  literacy  anymore. Thank  you. So  it's  good  to  see  you.  I'm  intrigued by  a  couple  of  things  that  you  brought  up. My  area  is  hip  hop  studies  and  we've  been  doing a  lot  around  the  integration  of  AI  for  lyrical  analysis. And  so  I'm  encouraged  by  the, the  technique  that  you're  using to  take  information  like  from a  poem  and  then  dumping  that into  a  mid  journey  and  seeing  what  you're  coming  up  with. So  thank  you  for  that.  I  wanted  to  know  more  about your  thoughts  on  this  hip  hop  inspired  design  thinking. I've  been  writing  a  lot  about  it and  published  a  chapter  in  remix  studies around  ways  in  which  we  can  be informed  by  the  affordances of  hip  hop  in  design  thinking. You  mentioned  earlier  around  how this  goes  back  to  collaging and  the  remixing  and  the  sampling. And  I'm  interested  to  hear  more  about  what  you  think. And  how  those  affordances  even  can be  located  within  African  traditions. And  how  they,  how  that  African  past  informs those  African  futures  in the  way  in  which  we're  utilizing  AI  for  that, or  way  in  which  we're  using  AI  to  manipulate  that. Then  this  intersection  of AI  and  hip  hop  culture  and  music, I  would  be  interested  to hear  what  you  have  to  say  about  that. Give  me  to  be  honest,  and  hip  hop, the  only  AI  we  acknowledged, right  at  some  point  was  Alan  Iverson. That  was  AI,  right? And  so  now  there  are  ways  in which  these  AI  tools  are  being  used  to  produce  music, but  there's  that  intellectual property  and  copyright  issue of  using  folks  voices  and creating  songs  that  aren't  really  them. So  I  just  want  to  know  your  thoughts around  the  way  in  which hip  hop  is  inspiring  design  thinking, but  also  the  way  in  which  those affordances  can  be  located, even  prior  to  be  located  within  those  African  traditions. And  I  know  I'm  asking  a  lot, but  you're  here  and  I'm  fascinated  with  your  work, so  I  figured  I'll  go  ahead  and  put  all  that  out  there. Yeah.  You  know,  it's  right  here  in  this  library, I  found  an  essay  that  was so  helpful  to  me.  You  know  what? I'm  going  to  talk  about  James not  Tran's  relative  but  the  same  last  name. Right  here  in  this  library  I  found  an  essay about  black  repetition  in culture  production  by  James  Need, I'll  yell,  A  professor  who  died  many  years  ago. Mm  hm.  And  in  it  he spells  out  one  of  the  first  funk  songs,  Cold  Sweat. And  he  writes  it's  an  algorithm.  Aba.  Aba. And  I'm  like,  wait  a  minute, there's  computer  science  here. It  was  like  a  moment,  it's  an  algorithm. So  then  I  started  plugging  cold  sweat. So  I  focused  on  cold  sweat. I  played  in  a  visualizer. It  produced  African  patterns. What  those  patterns  are  like? Cuba  cloth  and  J's  been  Alabama  quilts. Wait  a  minute. There's  a  polyrhythmic  aspect  that  shows  up. Oh,  this  is  a  real  things  just  so  you  know, there's  been  research  in African  American  quilts  and  lens  the  patterns, the  poly  rhythmic  patterns  to  jazz, to  hip  hop  and  so  on. So  there's  one  aspect  of  it  and  then there's  kind  of  a  calm  response  in the  cold  sweat  that  was  new  when  that  song  came  out. So  they  would  lay  down  the  bass, the  melody,  the  groove. And  then  James,  he  wouldn't  even  be  there. James  Brown  would  show  up  and the  insert  based  on  improvisation, whatever  he  wants,  get  a troublesome  and  like  it  was  a  calm  response, pulling  it  from  gospel, pulling  it  from  all  that, in  that  space  to  produce  that  song, the  one  we  were  talking  about on  the  one  they  came  at  that  same  time, then  Prince  picked  it  up. And  then,  you  know,  like  then they  got  sample,  and  sample, and  sample,  and  sample,  and  sample, and  sampled  over  and  over  and  over again.  We  talk  about  voices. We,  we  were  sampling  other  people's  songs for  years  until  it  became  you  got  to  pay  for  it. But  actually,  if  you  think  about  it, people  who  had  no  resources  in poor  communities  were  creating  songs  and  getting, creating  careers  for  themselves and  hip  hop  and  rap  music. But  they  were  not  musicians. Right? And  then  they  could  sample from  music  from  all  over  the  world. Well,  once  you  had  to  pay  for  that, you  couldn't  afford  it. But  they  weren't  musicians, so  then  they're  really  relying  on  machines  to  produce sounds  that  actually  are  not  very  creative. Mm  hm.  So  that's  where  we  are  today. But  I'm  just  saying  there's  a  comparison between  how  people  use  AI  tools  to  generate  the  images, Now  what  we're  doing  with  samples  in the  '80s  and  '90s as  so  called  golden  age  of  hip  hop  that  has, It  still  feels  very  familiar. Yeah,  yeah. And  the  legal  issues  for  both. Yeah.  Are  very  familiar. Yeah.  Yeah.  So  I  think  the  sampling  someone  was, you  know,  on  the  legal  side  of  things. Actually  explain  to  me  how  sampling  is  cool  to  compare. It's  not  actually  the  same because  latent  space  is  a  whole  nother  thing. And  we  didn't  have  access  to  that  in the  music  as  you're  working  with  the  machines. But  it's  a  different  process, but  it's  still  very  similar  to  sampling. Yeah,  yeah.  So  how  does  calling response  because  I've  already  figured out  how  I  calling response  with  machines  and  other  people. I'm  really,  you  know, I  did  a  little  talk  yesterday  about  that. But  I'm  on  this  thing,  cipher  AI, like  I'm  on  this  new  thing about  building  from  the  ground  up, bringing  in  our  cultural  practices. In  the  process  of  designing  these  models. Yeah,  and  that  part  comes  from my  experiences  in  hip  hop  and, you  know,  calling  response  in  the  church  and all  those  things  that James  Brown  brought  when  he  came  in. Uh,  you  know  what  the. Yeah.  You  know,  listen  to  the  groove. It  was  laid  down  and  it  was  considered  to  be  innovative. It  was  innovation  that's black,  technological  creativity,  innovation. Eventually  machines  were  used  in addition  to  the  musicians  to  join  in  on  that. And  that's  where  Princeton,  you  know, came  in  with  the  Lyndrum  and  all  that  stuff. So  Yeah.  Thank  you. I  appreciate  it.  Yeah. Um,  I  just  wanted  to  ask,  so  there's  this, I  think  perception  of  this  sort  of  AI  based  art that  it's  low  value  because  it's  easy  quote. So  I  just  wanted  to  ask  if  you would  mind  talking  about  your  process  and  the  amount of  time  that  you  put  into  your  work  and  how  you  kind of  approach  a  project when  you  want  to  get  something  done. Because  I  am  deeply  fascinated  in  what  you're  doing, and  I'm  just  curious  how  that  comes  about. One  of  the  things  I'm  really interested  in  is  just  seeing  what  it does  right  now,  every  week. Because  just  so  people  know, I've  been  producing  the  image  using  AI  for  up  since  2019. Every  day  when  I went  to  Johannesburg  this  time  last  year, every  day,  there  was  at  least  one  image  coming  that I  generated  based  on  my  experiences  in  South  Africa. When  I  went  to  Brazil,  there  was  an  image  every  day. It  was  in  the  favelas  was  something  I experienced  someone  I  learned  about  a  picture  I  took. That  was  so  that's  a  really  cool  thing. But  at  the  same  time  I will  sometimes  go  and  draw  and  then  give  it that  as  a  prompt  because  I  had a  vision  for  how  I  wanted  the  output  to  happen. There's  something  that's  very collaborative  about  that  process, and  so  every  image  that  I  post  is  a  different  process. Sometimes  it's  one  tool, sometimes  I'm  using  three  to  produce  that  one  image. Sometimes  I  use  mid  journey  and  then I  bring  it  into  deep  dream  generator. Do  something,  and  I  bring  it  in  the  Photoshop to  extend  the  border or  do  something  else  or  make  the  Facebook  more  realistic. That  depends  on  what  it  calls  for. But  then  there  are some  serious  issues  in  terms of  accessibility  of  these  tools. Accessibility  of  Adobe,  Creative  Suite. Accessibility  of  mid  journey. The  mid  journey  is  not  free. Accessibility  of  even  deepdream  generator, which  was  free  when  I  started  using  it, is  no  longer  free  there  as, oh,  isn't  you  know,  like. And  then  there's  a  question  for  people who  are  students,  who  are  entrepreneurs, who  are  just  getting  started  about  affording these  things  started  when  the  pandemic  started  in  2020. I  had  1,200  followers  on  Instagram  now, and  having  100,000  followers  just from  people  spreading  the  word  and  then  putting  the  work. And  some  of  those  people  are  just  regular  folks, some  people  are  famous  and  freak  me out  when  they  appear  out  of  nowhere. But  the  point  is  they're  all  looking  and consuming  the  same  information. And  in  some  cases, fighting  battles  within  the  common  sections about  the  originality  of  the  work. I'm  always  challenging  people  to  go further  than  what  the  tool  does, because  I  feel  like  that's  where the  real  good  stuff  comes  from. Every  time  I  make  an  image, it's  with  a  different  idea  that  I  want  to  try  out. And  then  I'll  run  for  that  for a  week  or  two  days  and  then  I  move  on  to  something  else. But  the  idea  is  to  really  see  what  this  tool  is  doing. So  what  I'm  doing  now  is  I  go  and  pick, used  the  same  prompt  I  used  in version  5.2  and  see  what  it does  in  6.0  And  then  when  I  did  that, a  new  feature  popped  up  that  merges  what  I  was  doing  in the  overt  deepdream  generator  that now  I  can  bring  those  styles  into  my  journey. So  what  happens  if  I  bring in  styles  from  deep  dream  generator, old  school  AI  that  I  was  doing  in  to  midyear? I  need  to  create  something amazing  I've  never  even  thought  of. It  keeps  going,  it  keeps  evolving. That's  the  excitement  of  it.  I'm  not  trying  to  stay  in, I  just  say  I  have  a  traditional  arts  background. I  went  to  art  colleges. I  have  MF  Studio  fine  arts  degrees. That  was  my  major  in  high  school  was  visual  arts. I  know  that  part  of  it, but  this  is  a  new  day. But  I  was  also  a  computer  graphics major  when  I  was  in those  schools  too.  It  was  computer  graphics. So  I  was  already  playing  around  with  early  Photoshop, trying  to  make  it  do  what  I  do  with  my  journey. Now  I  was  trying  to  do  in  1990, so  now  we  fairly  can  do  that. I  was  trying,  I  have  slides  and  I  can see  the  work  and  I  know  what  I  was  trying  to  do  then. I  was  collage  was  very  much  a  part  of the  work  that  I  was  doing  then on  the  traditional  side  of  things. And  I  tried  to  do  it  digitally  and  I  didn't  hit  a  wall. But  the  technology  was  limited. It's  not  limited  anymore. So  there  was  a  moment  was  in  an  Imax  theater a  few  months  ago  and  I  saw  my  work appear  on  an  Imax  film. And  I'm  like,  wow,  so  now  it's  like, and  then  I  wrote  an  encyclopedia  entry  for  AI  Art. I  used  to  read  encyclopedias  all  the  time. As  a  kid  I'm  an  encyclopedia, It's  all  about  the  next  thing. So  once  you  get  into  a  practice, just  like  any  artist  could do  a  practice  with  their  tools, they're  starting  to  explore new  things  every  once  in  a  while. If  you  don't,  you  stagnate.  And  maybe you're  doing  it  because  you're  making  money. But  it's  not  as  fun, it's  not  as  engaging  for  me unless  I  can  turn  and  try  this,  you  know, style  reference  tool,  feature  mode  or  Pen  mode, and  add  the,  you  know, Gloria  Naylor  book  store. You  know,  like,  it's  all  new  exploration  that  I  think keeps  driving  me  and  keeps  me interested  for  eight  years  doing  this  work. That's  fascinating.  Thank  you.  Sure. So  just  so  everyone  knows,  we're going  to  just  take  one  last  question. We  have  one  last  person  up  here  that's  perfect. And  we'll  wrap  up  at  12:15  Hi, Hi,  super  inspired  in  Afro  futurism. I  feel  like  in  Latin  America  there's now  things  being  born  like  and,  and  futurism, Pre  Columbian  futurism  and  other movements  that  are  hoping that  these  types  of  movements  do affect  the  future  that  we're  taking. And  I  wanted  to  know  if  you  do  think  that  movements  like Afro  futurism  do  have  an  impact on  the  creation  of  the  culture and  where  they  see  themselves. Does  it  change  behavior? That's  a  good  question.  I  think if  you  look  at  practitioners  that consider  practitioners  Afrofreturism  or subfretism  for  Ramel, it  was  his  life,  but  that's  extreme, like  he's  obsessed  with  his  concepts. He  wrapped  himself  around  it  and spoke  in  the  language  that  nobody  else  understood. A  few  people  understood.  That's  different. But  there  are  a  lot  of  kids, including  kids  that  I've  worked  with  in  the  past, didn't  have  futures.  I  remember  one. And  when  I  was  doing  upward bound  at  Roxbury  Community  College, and  I  had  to  do  intake  interviews, and  one  kid  came  in  and  he  said, I'm  going  to  be a  basketball  player  I  said,  well  what  happens? You  break  your  leg  or  are  you  break  your  D? I  mean,  that's  a  very  real  thing,  You're  athlete,  right? But  very  few  people  make  it. But  when  I  asked  them  if  you  had  any  in their  plans  no,  not  at  all. And  then  there  was  a  moment  of  you  could see  it  just  I  don't  have  a  future. So  what  Aphroisom  does  is  it  gives  people an  idea  to  think  about  the  future  as opposed  to  letting  other  people move  with  the  wind  or  whatever and  maybe  the  conversation. Giving  people  an  opportunity to  speculate  about  who  they  are, what  they  will  be  being,  what  they'll  do  is  giving  them, just  like  I  have  a  new  idea  that  I  want  to  try  out with  a  generative  AI  tool  that,  hey, maybe  I  can  try  this  out instead  of  not  having  any  future  at  all, which  is  for  a  lot  of  young  people  still  the  case. I  think  it  does  change  the  way  you  think  about  your  life. So  when  opportunities  come, some  people  shut  down  and  I  can't  do  that. You  know,  and  other  people  jump  in. And  that's  what  speculative  fiction, speculative  ideas  do.  I'm  jumping  in. I  want  to  see  if  we  can  come  up  with  some  answers. But  not  enough  of  that  is  happening  where it  needs  to  happen  in  order for  you  to  see  a  lot  of  change. But  it  needs  to  happen  and  hopefully with  some  of  these  things  that  are happening  kind  of  in  the  spaces  that  are  shocking, the  establishment  will  actually  lead  to  some real  that  young  man  comes  and he  has  other  ideas  instead  of  just  basketball  player. Thank  you.  Thank  you  again  so  much,  Natricea. This  was  really  wonderful  and thanks  to  all  of  you  for  being  here. Let's  give  Dr.  Gaskins  a  huge  hand.