Empowering Diverse Creators in the AI Era with Lianne Baron

Education, connection, partnerships, responsibility

Aug 19, 2024

Lianne Baron discusses changes to the digital creator economy
The latest updates on AI legislation
Upcoming AI events and conferences, including QCon
Before you go…check out the latest news about AI regulation

“I think the greatest happiness, at least from what I've seen, is connection. And the more that we have that opportunity to see it, through the lens of all of these wonderful points of emerging technology, I think the happier [we’ll be] and the higher vibration we're going to have with the people around the world that we see.” - Lianne Baron

When we discuss AI development and regulation, we often hit on huge topics like healthcare, politics, and enterprise. But AI is having a major impact on creators economy, too, and it’s important that we don’t overlook that area.

Lianne Baron is the Strategic Partner Manager for Creative Partnerships at Meta. Meta, of course, is deeply invested in AR, especially, and that attracts all sorts of creators who are exploring this relatively new medium. In this conversation with Dr. Sanjay Puri, Baron brings a new perspective on the ways AI is changing the life of the digital creator and how we should think about collaboration, partnership, ownership, and responsibility around the digital things we make.

Watch the episode below, and read on for the highlights of their conversation!

In this episode:

How will AI impact the future of creative expression and collaboration? It’s top of mind at Meta, because consumers are integrating it into their daily lives, and those who serve those consumers need to be mindful of how they’re influencing them.
- And there’s a lot of fear, but: “The one thing that I always encourage those who approach me and have this fear is to first of all, embrace the change,” said Baron.
- She uses a train metaphor. The train is already leaving the station. Are you going to stand there and watch it leave? Or are you going to get on board and see what it’s about. “Am I sitting at the front of that train? Am I driving the train? Am I having conversations with people on the train?,” she offered.
- When people embrace this change and then look at all the resources we have to learn about what’s happening, there’s less fear. “The other thing that I'm seeing, particularly with the creatives who are embracing this, that have gotten over the fear, is incredible excitement,” she said. She said that AI helps creative people accelerate the gap between imagination—coming up with an idea—and create it. And they can also iterate on their ideas quickly. Sora, the text-to-video generator, is a (developing) prime example.
To engage diverse creators: Education is key—positioning AI tools to be something that’s interesting to people who typically aren’t aligned with the tech field.
- “If we speak to folks in a way that they feel like it's accessible to them, that it's not intimidating, that they…can have a voice and participate in what this looks like […] even just down to the lexicon and making sure that people feel comfortable with the language, and what it is that they're speaking to, that they understand what they're saying—starting there and then allowing them to have different pathways to have conversations where they feel comfortable and feel as though anything that they're going to contribute is relevant, then that's where I think you have a whole lot more diverse voices that are contributing to the space,” said Baron.
- And make the software and hardware accessible to people!
On the opportunities of partnerships: “I did step into [Meta] for a lot of reasons, to bring voice…to creators, but also because they have this superpower of partnerships,” said Baron.
- She gave the example of Girls Who Code. They had partnered with RCA Records and Doja Cat to create a video and a website with changeable code. They went to Meta to ask if there was a creator who could build an effect to complement all that. “And I thought, ‘Let's go one [step] further. Why would we just throw an effect at these women when we could teach them how to do it themselves?,” Baron said.
- “I taught them how to build AR effects, and their AR effect ended up being launched with Doja Cat at Coachella. This ended up being a program that went on for a year with all of the strong women on the RCA label, where we ended up taking different cohorts of these girls, and then teaching them how to build AR effects,” she said.
How do you address ethical concerns about bias and discrimination in some of the AI-powered creative tools? “If we aren't contributing…or encouraging those that have these voices, but are just currently not in the subset of data—if we're not encouraging that, and just allowing this to perpetuate and be a very closed data set, I think that's going to be an ongoing problem” said Baron. Mentors and those who foster partnerships need to help make those connections and make sure those additional voices are heard.
How do you build trust with creators regarding data ownership and and privacy when they're using AI tools? “[With] companies like Meta, it's really important to be aware of their policies, and to be understanding and patient,” she said. Make sure everything you’re doing is in the best interest of participating stakeholders.
But what about safeguards or legal clarity? Eg, to ensure proper attribution? Understanding what’s real, what’s legitimate, what has been fabricated, and what is the original source. “Being able to trace that, and becoming very well educated,—everyone's going to have their own level of comfort of where they can say, I feel okay understanding where this comes from. But it's up to every individual,” said Baron.
“I know that there are going to be some standards that are put into place as we move forward with this, but again it comes up to you as a creator or as an individual to say, ‘Hey, this is my work, I'm going to protect this with some sort of way of acknowledging that this is stamped digitally,’” she said.
Regarding competing interests between creators, platforms, and AI developers: She said it’s great to have an affinity for a particular platform that suits you, but don't ever put all your eggs in one basket. “Things change,” said Baron. “This is a very rapidly changing world. The tooling, the surfaces, the companies, the things that you are depending on, but are not in control of, are bound to change.
- Therefore, she suggests always diversifying. “In the AR space that I represent, there's TikTok, there's Snapchat, there's Meta, there's opportunity to share out on web. And, I feel like the more opportunity that creators stay open to, then the more it will be available to them.”
On the tension between artistic freedom and regulation: “There are going to be times where you're going to have to bend your creative vision, or what it is that you're working on, or the thing that you're trying to accomplish if you are in alignment or if you are in partnership with something that requires regulation,” Baron said.
What emerging trends in AI do you see shaping the future of creative partnerships? It changes so fast. Ask the same question a week from now, and there will be a different answer. What’s happening right now: Text to text, text to photo, including AI in sensory things like the Ray Ban Meta smart glasses.
- “But really it's taking over these really well established and deeply rooted spaces such as entertainment, with this VFX […]AI is literally going to be doing the hard work, the grunt work, that has been done by traditional folks,” said Baron.
On keeping humans centered in the creative process: Understand what is the human experience that can’t be duplicated by AI. Mainly: Imagination! Gen AI “is really taking from a subset of existing data that is already out in the world. So what we have still is imagination to conceive of the things that are not currently out in the world,” she said.
What are your biggest hopes and concerns regarding the future of AI, specifically in the creative world? She hopes to see an uptick in the kinds of stories that are being told, especially those who never had a channel through which to share before. “Every single person that is here on this earth is contributing their own story,” Baron said.
“I think the greatest happiness, at least from what I've seen, is connection. And the more that we have that opportunity to see it, through the lens of all of these wonderful points of emerging technology, I think the happier [we’ll be] and the higher vibration we're going to have with the people around the world that we see,” said Baron.

Hear the entirety of Lianne Baron’s conversation with Sanjay Puri above and on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Subscribe to the RegulatingAI podcast to never miss an episode.

The latest AI legislation

H.R.9309, S.4951, Washington, D.C. Unleashing AI Innovation in Financial Services Act. Establishes regulatory sandboxes within financial regulatory agencies, enabling entities to safely experiment with AI technologies while mitigating systemic risks to the financial system. Status: Introduced.
S.4896, Washington, D.C. AI Innovation and Development for Efficiency (AIDE) Act. Begins programming at the National Science Foundation to research how AI can increase efficiency, specifically with green technologies, at universities nationwide. Status: Introduced.
S.4976, Washington, D.C. Artificial Intelligence Acquisitions Act of 2024. Requires the Undersecretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology to compile and update a list of AI products and services from countries of adversarial concern. Status: Introduced.

Check out our live AI legislation tracker

Upcoming AI events

QCon

San Francisco, California | Nov 18-22, 2024 | Online/In-person

QCon San Francisco international software development conference. Make the right decisions by uncovering how senior software developers at early adopter companies are adopting emerging trends. Learn the emerging trends. Explore the use cases. Implement the best practices.

Tech & AI Live

New York, New York | Nov 20, 2024 | Online

Join us at Tech & AI Live New York on the 20th of November 2024 for this special one-day virtual conference. You'll watch acclaimed keynote speakers from companies such as Microsoft, IBM and Deloitte. Take part as we host interactive high-energy panel discussions and discover the latest initiatives through in-depth fireside chats covering Generative AI, the Metaverse, and Zero Trust Security.

Watch, learn, and connect with industry professionals wherever you are in the world through our dedicated virtual platform as Tech & AI Live leads the drive towards digital transformation.

Cypher 2024

Santa Clara, California | Nov 21-22, 2024 | Online/In-person

Cypher is a must-attend event for AI professionals and developers to discover how enterprises in the U.S. are adopting generative AI.

An intense focus on real-world AI adoption strategies, shared directly by leading CDOs and analytics experts. Be part of an event where actionable insights meet innovative strategies, shaping the future of enterprise AI.

Bookmark this page to keep track of key upcoming AI events

Before you go…

Researchers have ranked AI models based on risk—and found a wild range | WIRED
California’s AI safety bill is a mask-off moment for the industry | The Nation
Members of U.S. Congress urge veto of California AI bill | GovTech
U.S. financial services committee leaders want “regulatory sandboxes” for AI | CoinTelegraph
Asia-Pacific regulations keep pace with rapid evolution of AI technology | Sidley
Executives expect complying with AI regulations will increase tech costs | CIO Dive