The Human Side of AI featuring Elettra Fiumi

[music] Good morning, everyone, and welcome back to 15 with Fosca, the podcast. I am so happy to have today's guest with me here talking about all things AI. And I have to say, before I introduce you, Electra, I talk about AI on the podcast all the time. No matter what guest I have on, no matter what the subject is, we always get to AI. So it's fantastic that finally today I dedicate an entire podcast episode to what the hell is going on with artificial intelligence in our world today with a true expert. So a little bit about today's guest, Electra Fiumi is an award-winning film director, AI expert, and interdisciplinary creator whose work bridges storytelling, emerging technology, and human experience. Her films explore the edges of perception and identity, and she brings that same curiosity to her work with AI both as a tool and as a cultural force shaping our future. I would also hazard to say our present. Electra's unique perspective combines cinematic craft with technological insight, inviting audiences to rethink not just what stories can be but how we tell them in a world transformed by intelligent machines. I also want to give Electra a shout-out. She's an alumna of Mount Holyoke College, which for those who know me well, know that I went to Bryn Mawr, so go Seven Sisters at shaping the world today.

Electra, thank you again for coming on the podcast today.

It's such a pleasure, Fosca. I'm really excited about this conversation.

Me too, and I have to say, you know, you and I met, I heard you speak at an event here in Florence, and I think you blew the entire public's minds during that. Um, I don't think many were prepared for just how much AI is an integral part of our world today, but more than that, I think just kind of like the enormity of it. And a lot of what you said, I think shocked people, but I think it also woke them up. So,

Um, for full disclosure, for the first time ever, I used AI to come up with all these questions.

I have never done that before. I asked ChatGPT, and I said, I put in your bio, and I, you know, it found whatever it found, and I did not make any adjustments. So, it's the first time ever, so let's see how AI does with the questioning process, if I can be replaced and if my work can be reduced.

Well, your questions were, in fact, amazing. Uh, but there's something to be said about how you're going to lead the conversation.

[laughter] Exactly. I'd like to think that I can put a little humanity into it. So, for those who don't know you and don't know your work, can you tell us a little bit more about what you do?

Great question. It depends on the day. Uh, in the last week, I've been very focused on building a new AI platform, and I've been testing some new tools to generate video, some tools that haven't come out yet. So, in particular,

Sea Dream and, um, soon I'll be testing also for OpenAI.

Very cool. So, because in addition to using AI as a, let's say, a creative partner in your work as a filmmaker, you also are like a beta tester for a lot of realities out there in the world today. So you're the person who actually tries things out, gives feedback. We have—I said to you before we started recording, it's the first time I have three note takers, three AI note takers on a podcast recording via Zoom because you said, and you said, "I'm testing them out. I've kind of decided." So how does that—like, how does—I'm not even sticking to the questions anymore, see. Um, so how does that play out? Like, what do you do? So a company reaches out to you and they say, "Hey, you know, try this for us." Like, what's that process looking like for you these days?

It's a messy process. They are like the video generator tools are the ones that I'm most—that it's most important for me to be a creative partner with them because I can, you know, film is really the core of everything I do. And so for me, it's, you know, partially it's credibility, but it's just really exciting to be able to test something like new features and new models and updates to what they're doing before everybody else. So you really have time to play and push the technology to the limits. And that looks really different for each creator. So we all have very different styles and interests, and those also evolve. And I love being in touch with the other creators. So there are some really amazing communities and also with the people behind the tech.

There's some really inspiring people who are super smart, and everybody brings something to the table. And in a landscape like this that is changing so quickly and nobody really has the answers, so it's only through those kinds of communities that you can have those exchanges that help you decipher where we're going and how we should approach things and what are the, where, what's the important stuff?

So, let's stay there for a minute because I want to get into a little more about your filmmaking, but before we do that, I want to talk about the current landscape because I'd like you to help me help people understand kind of what's going on. I think there's a lot of fear around AI. I look at it as an incredible ally for us in every—I mean, in pretty much every aspect of our lives, but there is a lot of fear around it. So, can you give people sort of a read of the pulse today? Like, what is going on? What is the current landscape? You mentioned all these wonderful people, so there's a lot of humanity behind it. I think we tend to lose sight of that, and I'm so glad that you said there are all these wonderful people coming from so many different points of view that are shaping the current landscape. But can you break it down for us a little? Like, what do you think is going on now? What, like, what are the most important things you think people should know?

The first thing is that you have to educate yourself, and educating yourself does not in any way mean reading articles on the New York Times.

[laughter] The New York Times, by the way, has one of my go-to podcasts for AI information, which is Hard Fork.

I listen to it, too. I love it.

Yeah, they're fantastic, and that helps you, you know, absorbing news of that type helps you stay updated, but really you just need to get your hands dirty, which means taking any classes that you can and educating yourself on what are these tools, but not just reading about them and looking at it, but creating with them. So, if you know, for example, one of my favorite tools is WhisperFlow, which is a dictating tool. So, you can integrate it into your computer or into your cell phone, and you just talk instead of type. And it works on WhatsApp, it works on email, it works on any different platform where you're writing.

You know, things like that, like if you hear about a tool like that, you don't really understand why that would be transformative.

And the moment that you actually download it and test it, and not just test it and then like, "Oh, I'll start. That's cool to know. I'll start using it sometime." No, like just that day, right away, start using it, and that's when you really understand how massive the impact of this technology is. And I really encourage everybody. I'm also an educator, so I'm teaching, for example, in the coming months I'm going to the Cyprus Film Festival and teaching to film directors AI. I'm teaching in June at Franklin University Switzerland in Lugano for a month to college students, in August to teenagers at the Locarno Film Festival. I just taught in Florence an AI Made Simple class, which was for anybody with different backgrounds. And I really love teaching because I get to see how other people's minds are blown the way that mine was blown when I first encountered AI, which was during my maternity leave.

I finally had some empty time, and I took a master's in AI for business, and then after that—

everybody else. So you really have time to play and and push the technology to the limits. Uh and that looks really different for each creator. So we all have very different styles and interests and those also evolve. Uh

and I love being in in touch with the other creators. Uh so there there some really amazing communities and also with the people behind the tech.

Um there's some really inspiring people who are super smart and um everybody brings something to the table. And in a landscape like this that is changing so quickly and no nobody really has the answers. So it's only through those kind of

communities that you can have uh those exchanges that help you decipher where we're going and how we should approach things and what are the uh where where what's the important stuff?

So, let's stay there for a minute because I I want to get into a little more about your filmmaking, but before before we do that, I want to talk about the current landscape because I'd like you to help me help people understand

kind of what's going on. I think I there's a lot of fear around AI. I I look at it as an incredible ally for us in every I mean, in pretty much every aspect of our lives, but there is a lot

of fear around it. So, can you give people sort of a read of the pulse today? Like what is going on? What is the current landscape? You mentioned all these wonderful people. So, there's a lot of humanity behind it. I think we

tend to lose sight of that, and I'm so glad that you said there are all these wonderful coming from so many different points of view that are shaping the current landscape. But can you break it down for us a little? Like what do you

think is going on now? What what like what are the most important things you think people should know?

The first thing is that you have to educate yourself, and educating yourself does not in any way mean reading articles on the New York Times.

[laughter] The the uh the New York Times, by the way, has one of the my go-to podcast for AI information, which is uh uh Hard Fork. I listen to it, too. I love it.

Yeah, they're they're fantastic, and that helps you, you know, absorbing uh news of that type helps you stay updated, but really you just need to get your hands dirty, which means taking any classes that you can and educating yourself on what are these

tools, but not just reading about them and looking at it, but creating with them. So, if you know, for example, one of my favorite tools is WhisperFlow, which is a dictating tool. So, you can integrate it into your

uh computer or into your cell phone, and you just talk instead of type. And it works on WhatsApp, it works on email, it works on any different platform where you're writing.

Um you know, things like that, like if you hear about a tool like that, you don't really understand why that would be transformative.

And the moment that you actually download it and test it, and not just test it and then like, "Oh, I'll start That's cool to know. I'll start using it sometime." No, like just that day, right away, start using it, and that's when

you really understand what how massive the the impact of this technology is. And I really encourage everybody I I'm also an educator, so I'm teaching, for example, in the coming months I'm going to the Cyprus Film Festival and teaching

to film directors AI. I'm teaching in June at the University Franklin University Switzerland in Lugano for a month to college students in August to teenagers at the Locarno Film Festival. I just taught in Florence an AI Made Simple

class, which was for anybody with different backgrounds. And I really love teaching because I get to see how other people's minds are blown the way that mine was blown when I first encountered AI which was during my maternity leave.

I finally had some empty time and I took a masters in AI for business and then after that it just there was no turning back and and it blew my mind and that's exactly the term that you'll hear often

when people talk about discovering AI in that way in in a deeper way than just reading about it because I often make this analogy like AI is not like a word like God like the this untangible huge massive thing that really polarizes

people and also brings people together. It's not that like it shouldn't stay in that realm. Bring it like down to the practical things. Understand how a tool works how it can be beneficial to your to achieving your dreams whatever that

means to you whether it's personal or professional in whatever career you're pursuing and and then try to understand also the risks involved with the technology so the the power like any power dynamic that we can imagine in the in the world has its

positive and negative aspects and and they're complex. So there's bias there's a lot of lot to understand in data training and in you know where the money lies and but then it's also democratizing in terms of of film for example you know

there was I read an incredible article about how uh Africa they're really excited about this technology because they don't uh have they haven't had the the access to the resources that you can imagine uh in Hollywood. So, you know, we're talking about people's

voices finally emerging around the world. Many different backgrounds are being uh you know, finally accessing uh this power to communicate and to be more efficient and to analyze extraordinarily huge amounts of data and tell stories from it and understand things in a

deeper way uh in science and research uh in in finance. It's it's really impacting every single industry and uh it's um the tools are allowing things to be built faster uh with the you know, it's they're not always perfect, but the technology is

improving uh at an exponential level. So, whatever you see now and you can definitely criticize what the outputs are uh although often they depend on the quality of the input. Uh but you are sure that in 3 months, in 6 months, it's

going to be exponentially better. So, it's a it's a very clear path if you follow uh video AI like AI videos, the the quality with which you you see visuals now um you know, the quality that that they're

outputting is is it it is a totally different universe than what was there even just 6 months ago. Um And it's harder to gauge that change with the other technology, the other AI tools, but it's it's very evident and I think

and also a lot of the what's been found is that AI is being is teaching itself. So it's improving even on itself. Um by itself. So there there's a yeah, there's there's a lot to say about it. It's a it's a landscape

that I think people have the responsibility to follow very closely and to integrate it into their life.

Because otherwise you're really not you're you're you're living outside of of the world at this point. Yeah, 100% and I have so much to comment on in everything you just said, but I'll try to break it down a little.

First of all, I'm thrilled to hear that you're teaching so much because this is fundamental. And I'm also thrilled to hear and I want to talk just touch quickly upon two things that you said that I think are really well,

everything you said is really important, but I'm really interested in your focus on young people because a lot of older people are putting fear into young people about AI saying, oh, you're never going to get a job, you know,

everything's you know, only you know, go to college and only major in things that won't be replaced by AI. You know, and young people are getting all these really mixed messages. And so I'm glad that you are leading voice and that

you're putting some of your time a good amount of your time into educating. So I want to talk about that in a second how you're also a mom. So like me, we worry about our our our kids and what kind of

future is out there for them. The other thing is I love the fact that you talk about AI as sort of a the great equalizer, you know, and you talk about the fact that now we can see all these

creative movements coming out of places that maybe have been underrepresented up until now. This is a beautiful thing and you never really hear that. Like, you know, I mean AI is so vilified right now and you know, we need to start looking at it as

a a powerful ally. I think the thing that and then I'll I I want you to sort of comment on education and also this sort of um how AI can be an ally not only in the well, mostly in the creative

process, but also I'm kind of I think the velocity is the problem. So I was recently in a meeting and um you know, in a room full of people and I said to them, you know, if we had been in this

meeting a year ago and we had been talking about AI, our conversation would have been very different from the conversation we're having today. And that's also I think what's kind of frightening to people. It's like, "Ho, what? Like this is out of control." So I

want you to talk about a little the sort of the future of young people and what you do as an educator uh and a little about the the the creative ways that the ways that AI enhances our creativity and our not only

our productivity, but also our creativity. Yeah, so when we talk about education and AI, it often people ask me, "So what should we be teaching in schools?" And I think that there's uh there must be a balance where we're teaching both the

traditional subjects, but integrating the tools in that learning experience. Because what we all know is that we learn in different ways. Mhm. And kids have different passions.

And it is for me of paramount importance that people discover their passion as soon as possible because once you're doing something and we all have to work and we work tons of hours in our week. So, as you know, some more than others. I mean,

I I work all weekend. So, I I work a lot, but I think that it, you know, the moment that you discover what your passion is and you can clearly identify that direction that your life is going towards or that you are where

you're happiest, like your ikigai, like your the space where you're happy doing it, you're getting paid to do it, and you're leaving some kind of an impact.

Uh you're going to love it and you're going to be excelling in it. Mhm.

So, the soonest we can give the space to kids uh to do that, they're going to excel. So, for example, I love uh spreadsheets now. I love budgets. And you would have never imagined that if you had met me as a in

middle school because they were teaching me math in a way that I didn't understand. And the moment that I understood that budgets are actually telling stories, that unblocked me. And the moment that I can interact with a budget with like

knowing how formulas work and knowing how the relationship with numbers are. Like then it it becomes a useful thing to me and a powerful thing and I am empowered as well. So for example, there's one AI tool that I

love, which is Notebook LM. It's a Google product that is uh very um it's not known that much and it's undervalued and underestimated, but I think it's one of the most incredible tools that you can discover. And you

basically you create a project and you can upload up to 500 sources and you interact with that material, with that knowledge. That's what we call it in AI the AI world. It's the knowledge. So you have a sort of ChatGPT equivalent text

box and you can ask questions about the material or you can create a whole slew of things like a mind map or a podcast or reports and you can customize all of that. So you can decide to have a report

on a specific aspect of this material. But if I had had a tool like that while I was studying, I would have learned much more about science because maybe I learn more by listening to somebody tell me about it, that somebody who's talking

in a certain way that is very familiar and comfortable. Or you know, maybe I need a mind map to see how all the pieces connect. Maybe I need a video.

And so if you integrate a tool like that from a young age with for students, like they will learn and love learning. And I think that that is one of the qualities that we will continue that are really

important. Like the curiosity and the somebody yesterday was saying also agency and I found that to be really interesting which means that agency the power to know that you have the right to go and learn in a certain

way. Like you are allowed to use ChatGPT to ask about the bees you know for an hour because you're obsessed with bees that day and maybe you're not learning the math but you're learning more about bees and science and then so I think the

educational system needs to start going in that direction. I think it's very complicated because schools like law and bureaucracy like those are all things that are very slow to update and and as long as people are not educated

the people who are in power there they also won't know how to handle this technology and how to integrate it. So I think that there's a school called I think it's called Alpha um which is fully AI and that if you go and

read about it it's like oh it's just like 3 hours in the classroom and the rest is is doing other things. I think that's extreme but there there it's really important to to give that space and nurture that

space for for kids to be empowered by by this tech and and not you know and you can train the models also to have a Socratic method in how they talk to you and where they ask you questions and it's not like they're just

writing an essay for you and and then you pretend that it's written by you. So I hope I answered your question.

Absolutely. No and you raise all these other questions for me. I just want to point out again that I'm completely ignoring the questions that that ChatGPT produced which were great questions but I'm not surprisingly, I'm just so caught up

in everything you're saying. First of all, after I heard you speak, I downloaded immediately the app that you recommended, Notebook, and I recommended it to my daughter who's in her last year of high school as well.

I think what you touch on about the diversity of our learning is fundamental. And this is why we need to look at it. I think educators, like a lot of other people, are slow to respond because they're afraid. Again, it's all about fear. And

it if you start looking at at AI as like probably the most powerful ally we have in education today. Let's just keep it at education. You talk about agency. You talk about integration. You use the word knowledge. I mean, we have at our

fingertips. And this is I'm the same way as you. Like, I at a certain point, math and science, I was not very good. And maybe that was just because I was not responding to a traditional method of teaching or whatever. I needed a little

extra time. Can you imagine? I mean, the the fortune that these kids have today to be able to say, "You know what? I didn't really understand what my chemistry professor said today. I need a little extra help. Or I'm a visual

learner. Or I learn more if I hear." You know? And this is incredible. I mean, this gives people so much access. And I think we need to start focusing a little more on that. And I love the fact that

you use the word agency because it is an empowerment instead of all the negative terms that are are always being associated with AI. Not always, but I think the dominant voice right now in mass media is fear. You know? Is one of fear and

no, we need to be careful. Gosh, no. Look at this as an opening. Like, how exciting is this that our kids are going to grow up being able to pursue you also mentioned passion, which I love. So, I

want to get to your passion because I read um I skimmed through your latest Substack. You have a great Substack and well, you're active kind of everywhere, not surprisingly, and we'll put all the links in the show notes. But, I recently

read your recent your most recent Substack about a film you shot in Patagonia. You talk about how you used AI. And so, if you don't mind sharing a little bit about that project with us and also sort of how you you're you're a

creative person and I think up until even I don't know, maybe a couple of years ago or even a year ago, I don't think we looked at creativity and artificial intelligence as something like a harmonious relationship. So, as a

creative individual, can you talk to us more about this latest project and also like how you use AI on the daily for your filmmaking?

Yeah, totally. So, I I was blessed to be selected for this film lab in Patagonia in December, which was under the mentorship of the Italian director Paolo Sorrentino. His film La grazia is in cinemas now.

He's a Oscar-winner from with The Great Beauty. Yeah. And it was an incredible experience because we were in 50 filmmakers from around the world.

It was very international. Brazil, China, New York, London, I all over the world and you know, very different styles, different experiences. I was probably the oldest.

[laughter] Uh which is usually I I was always You're so young. You're so young. Well, that says everything though, right? Some some of them had just done like one short in their life, but very all extremely talented. And and so, I you

could do a short film. You had two weeks to do a short film and without any preparation prior to arriving. So on the first day they give you a production guide and with like some locations and some actors and then you have to figure

out your story and shoot it and edit it in two weeks. So I on day one I said to Paulo, can I do a documentary about you? And he's like, absolutely not.

[laughter] And he's like, no, come on. And he's like, and by the way, you're not allowed to do documentaries cuz he knew I came from a documentary background and that that was my safe space. And he wanted me to go outside of

my comfort zone. So I ended up doing my first fiction film, the first time working with actors.

Even though I've done advertising work and other things, but it's the first time working with actors. And I found an incredible woman who is a mostly a theater actress and she became the protagonist of my film.

And uh the the film itself, I mean, what I've also discovered with this technology about myself is that I have so many different types of stories within me. So I had the prior to AI, which I discovered about 2

and 1/2 years ago. Prior to that I I have a documentary background. I am a trained journalist with a master's in journalism from Columbia University. I started my career in magazines and and then have been doing video journalism

working for like the BBC, the New Yorker, doing feature-length documentaries including the one on my father's involvement in the 9999 group of radical architecture. So I've been, you know, really focused on the journalistic approach and the documentary sort of um

uh genre or you know world and uh always you know very sort of intimate profiles and you know stories about education sometimes about technology about movements uh a lot of art. Mhm. And I never ever ever thought that I would want to do

like a sci-fi film. Never. And it started getting like the AI started unlocking this creative portal of other types of stories and that sort of started happening with another film lab that I did in August. Uh that one

uh from that emerged this film called Mama Robot. Mhm. Which uh came because came to me because I saw this fake news about a robot that could host a fetus in her womb for the 9 months of the

gestation period and I got really obsessed with the story and so I started thinking well what if that like really could happen and it doesn't feel to me knowing the technology and knowing how much it's advancing it doesn't feel that

distant. Yeah. Okay. I know people think that I'm crazy when I say that but I think it is possible. I it might have even been like some that actually some somebody has already invented that but that they don't want to release it yet.

Anyway, I so I got obsessed with that and I created a film about that.

And which is like a very weird film and also explores a lot about just the narrative of how we uh tell the stor- stories and media and uh also podcasts, like how the how how we absorb media. And uh and then in the for

the December lab, I ended up the telling the story of this child that was uh from the robot's womb 30 years later. Like who is she? Who is this woman? You know, what do how basically what is interesting to me is

how does the technology impact us uh as humans? And uh this this relationship between technology and huma- humanity is actually something that I started uh really getting into when I was doing the film about my my father's group because they explored

similar topics. Uh and so now I realized that actually I have this passion for the exploring this this technology and humanity and imagination, like these these sort of topics.

Um but you know, the what was interesting about Patagonia is that I filmed live action, like real footage of this woman, right? Of this actress uh in these different scenes. And then I got back and I had 2 months to edit

this uh this film to like refine it. And uh there were a lot of things that I was like, "Oh man, I wish I had gotten that shot." And "Oh my god, there's dust on the lens of like this There was dust on

the lens for this shot." And there were a lot of parts that were frustrating to me. And so I sort of put I'm like, "Well, I have AI." And I had never used it in that way, but I was able to regenerate some

of the shots that without you know, eliminating the dust. I was able to generate additional footage that looks exactly like like you can't tell. Uh which is also uncanny and and scary, right? Um and part of the problem of

like how why people are afraid because we don't trust there's been a um a break in the trust. So when we see things, we don't know if they're real or not. Um and and so that that that's the the

downside, right? But then there's the upside that I I was able to create and craft a film that I think is much more powerful and people will really resonate with it and um you know, it it's it's still weird.

But that's okay. Um you know, I'm I'm also you know, I have a different experience of like how I want to create when I have when I'm doing independent films. Like I'm not trying to, you know, do like a

mainstream thing that is in the line of what people always expect. You're blowing my mind. And I mean, I and it's not just I mean, I had read the Substack about sort of the post-production process like your editing. And that's incredible that you

that you were able to do that, you know, that you see the power of this technology in making your film the film you want it to be. But what intrigues me even more is your discovery of all your different

storytelling that you didn't even know you had in you. I love that that is what is mind-blowing. And so I as I'm a writer and and um I wrote my first novel like just fairly recently. I I never even thought about

using AI. I just, you know, old-fashioned, you know, wake up at 3:00 a.m. write write write. Um how I want to talk more about this. Like how how what was the dialogue like for you? Like how did you just So you

mentioned this fake news about, you know, a robot, you know, carrying a baby to term and so this intrigued you and how did you I guess I want to know like how you started this dialogue with AI and how you came to discover that you

had all these stories within you that you would as a documentary filmmaker, you had never even considered cuz that's what's exciting about this Electra, right? It's the discovery.

So cool. It is really exciting. I have never been more stimulated creatively. It's It's really astonishing.

Uh and the more I work, the more I feel that way. So it's uh it's it's hard to to pinpoint one specific moment, but what I can say is that the the first lab that I did. So these

labs are are are a great playground, right? So it gives me time away from my daughter and away from my family and away from all the other uh work commitments that I have to focus specifically on my creativity and to be

in that environment with other filmmakers. So I I really encourage people to go to residencies and labs. I think they're a wonderful opportunity to really enhance yourself in in those ways that are of your you know, so sort of the the

the the motor that drives everything, right? So when I while I was there, I initially wanted to do a film and this is a much bigger project that will take a long time to to make, but it's a project that

is like a letter to my daughter and really it's it's a letter to the the the the future generations of us and uh talking about technology and trying to explain it to her and how to, uh, navigate it and pass on all the

knowledge that I have to her. And, um, but through like a very technical, sort of, like using the tools, uh, to to to show it. But it it I started doing that and it was like, "Oh my god, this is

like a huge project and I need much more time to think through it and to actually execute it in a way that looks good." Yeah. So, cuz that first lab was also one week only. So, I spent like the

first 3 days trying to get that film done. And then I was like, "Okay, so I used ChatGPT.

I have a custom GPT. So, uh, I also think it's really important for people to, whenever you encounter a tool, to try to understand how you can personalize it to your needs. And, um, the best way to do that in ChatGPT is to

create a custom GPT that has all the knowledge, uh, to help you your specific case. And that can be like, you can do a one for a project or you can you can do it for your company or you do it can do

it for yourself as an artist. Um, there there's so many different ways of of creating custom GPTs. But I had created one, obviously, for my production company, which is Fuel Me Studios. And then, uh, I started creating one for this specific

residency. And I it had known yeah, I had been working on it with with it on on this other concept. So, it already understood my line of thinking and what I was trying to say and my the message behind

what I was trying to say. And then I started saying it all like, one day, I remember I was just like, "I am in a huge crisis because I realize I don't have time to execute this project in the

way that deserves the attention." and you know what I really want to do something that is about you know motherhood and you know for me it was really difficult also to be away from my daughter for a week.

It was really difficult to be away from her in December for two weeks and so far away.

But I know that I have to do that to be a happy mom [laughter] and she'll be happier if I'm happy. So I you know was struggling on on this personal level and the the sort of larger films that I do

are always like very have a personal element and so you know I I I just talked through it and and explained also what I was reading in the news and what I was obsessed with and and then it sort of

started coming together as a fairy tale and so that's what I finished while I was there and then I also had some months to finish it and a few months later I came up with this concept of creating

other footage that would like book end the fairy tale because just having the fairy tale felt too like not in line with with my style of film making and so I did this other book end to make it

even more creepy and then I I created this lab called um the 13 it's called or the 13,000 or something lab 13 I can't remember but it's it's basically you pay 13,000 to have the robot host your fetus and

and so I I thought that was even creepier cuz it felt more contemporary or futuristic with then this fairy tale that is really you know goes back to sort of the our more tribal kind of memory.

Yeah. Oh my god, I'm obsessed with this. I'm obsessed with the fact that um first of all, that you bring so much humanity to this conversation about AI, and I think it's so important. I hope a lot of people listen to this episode

because we we tend to have this stupid notion that somehow AI and humanity are disconnected, but AI is a sounding board for you, and it takes on it becomes a more than just a a robot or artificial intelligence. It really

gets where your mind is kind of going or and you know, stimulates you. It's a you know, it's it's a it challenges you to think about things in a different way, and I love the fact that you bring also,

you know, your you know, being a a mother is I think what when we think of the most human, right? Like that the deepest human connection, whatever. And that's something you're celebrating in your art. You're always bringing it into the

work you do, um and that's sort of for me, it speaks to the fact that we need to be paying a lot of attention to all the potential that's here, and I think as creatives, I hear I I'm I spend

a lot of time with writers, I spend a lot of time with artists, and most of them are really fearful of this. So, what I would like to know from you is for anybody, not just artists and crea-

artists and creatives, but let's say like somebody who's never thought about using AI even though it's everywhere.

Obviously, we all use it every day. So, anyone who says they don't use AI is lying just because it's everywhere. It's in your Word documents. It's in Google now, whatever. But, what would you recommend as sort of like

an easy um let's say entrance into the wonderful world of AI for somebody who maybe is also a creative who's at an impasse um who wants to have a stimulating let's say interaction with with AI. Where would you recommend they

begin? You talked about like customization of Chat GPT, but can you break that down for me? Like what does that look like? Like how do you customize your Chat GPT?

Well, the incredible thing about the internet is that there's a ton of tutorials. And so they it takes time to find the good ones and to watch through everything, but I would literally Google how to create a custom GPT Okay.

on YouTube. And you open Chat GPT, you have to have the paid plan. It's like 20 bucks or something a month. It's totally worth it.

You go to the GPT section, you create new GPT, and you tell it everything about you like in the sense of what you do. Let's say you have a company, you give it the name of the company, you chat with it about what you

guys do, what are your services, what who are your competitors, what how much money or how much investment can you do in social media, how much you know, what are your goals, how big is your team. You you break it down

and you maybe put the some like a brief of your company up there or it could be your resume, and all of a sudden that GPT, so it's the it's a specific sort of section of where you can chat with that

GPT, you can ask it things about yourself and it has that knowledge that it pulls from. And you if you are an artist for example and you want to come up with a a new uh exhibition, and you have to put together a proposal,

you just go to it and say, "Give me, you know, like all, you know, summary." Or I have to write an email to the to the curator, or, you know, and and it just has all of that information there. So,

if you want to do a social media strategy plan, if you want to put come up with a budget for a project, if you want to uh send out an all-team meeting and it has all of your staff details there,

it's just a a very uh efficient way to move forward with your job without having to You're saving time on the context that you would need to give it in the normal chat.

Thank you for for breaking that down, because I think also you put it in very practical terms. You talked at the beginning about how now you love spreadsheets, and, you know, they're exciting for you, but it's clear that

all of us can benefit from these interactions in the work that we do, whether that be because it saves us time, or because it gives us that kind of creative, you know, input that maybe we've been needing, you know? Um it's

hard to believe, but we're we're kind of coming to the end of the podcast, and I want to talk to you like I I don't know what to do, because I literally want to talk to you forever. Um but I will I'm

going to ask you the question that I ask kind of every guest, and this is not chat GPT generated, it's still me generated, but what what's next for you, Alethea, in this very exciting world that's moving so quickly? Um

what's what's next for you? Well, I've been uh I'm in this intensive like AI Catalyst program that is 6 months long, and uh and so I'm I'm learning and exploring vibe coding and automations.

So I literally just built like well, I'm in the middle of building, but in like half a day I was able to build the the structure of this new uh platform that that I'm building, which I won't reveal yet because I will reveal

it when it's ready and it works. Um but it's just incredible how like I I connected with I'm in all these chats of like AI people and this girl this woman out in LA wrote like, "Hey, does anybody want to do a project about

like automations in film?" And I'm like, "Yeah." So we had a 10-minute chat, we came up with our concept, and we spent like a few days just interacting with each other amidst other projects, but just like refining the concept and the

plan. And then like yesterday in a few hours I was able to execute the majority of it.

And then this week I'll be refining it and uh And so you know, I'm building solutions and I'm also keep on doing films and um you know, I I it would be great to do let's say a series

uh or something that's longer in terms of content and have that be funded. Uh so I'm always like open to that kind of thing. I'm also trying to organize uh an AI female filmmaker residency in Florence. Uh so I'm looking for the

funding for that and I have already uh various partners on board. So yeah, there's there's a lot of different things uh that I'm doing and uh you know that the I'm just creating, I guess.

That's the bottom line. Creating and every day it's different stuff, but it's uh it the there's just never enough time to do all the all of it, but it's it's a very exciting time that I just feel like it's um it if

people are uh can can start aligning with it, you really feel like you're just expanded. Um so I I hope everybody can uh can experience that. Definitely read my Substack to get some tips and tricks and uh I just wrote about my

favorite um tools right now. So that's a good place to to sort of uh I filter out all the all the noise of of what is happening in media and and tech and uh and try to, you know,

distill it to to something that is a little bit uh I try to always teach and and share in the most simple ways. Um so that people don't feel intimidated by it. Um and then, you know, there's you

can always keep on digging deeper and deeper. Yeah, I recommend your Substack highly because I I really appreciate it. It's it's extremely um well done and also just like again, a great departure point for people who are still kind of like, "Wait, what's going

on here?" Because the fact that you're so committed to education, I think really comes through.

I we're going to have to you're going to have to come back. You're going to have to come back in a couple of months because I'm sure everything's going to look completely different. And you know, this whole time we're talking, I'm

thinking, "Oh, wait. Could AI, you know, be the great, you know, the the thing that finally gives us more time?" But then you're like it sounds like I mean, you're constantly evolving. You're constantly creating. You're keeping up.

And so maybe not not right now maybe eventually but you know I am so grateful to you for coming on today and illuminating us about the potential and it's not the AI potential it's the it's human potential you know and and that's

what it comes down to and there's so much humanity in this conversation and in the work that you do and I hope that it does you know convince those naysayers out there because there are many that this is something we need to it's not even

just a question of acceptance anymore like we need to all be on board because if not you get left behind right absolutely totally right regardless of your field so we're going to we're going to keep following you Electra I can't

wait to see this platform that you talked about I also would love to be to help you or to be involved in in some way in that huge wonderful event that you want to hold here in Florence that

you're planning on holding and so we should talk more about that as well and I just I wish you so much luck and I just I love what you're doing and I I'm really thankful to you for um

for sharing this information with us today and for all the great work you do so thank you so much thank you Fosca thank you for your podcast I really enjoy it thank you for today [music]