The Internet Creator's Guide to the Future - Ep. 26 with Steph Smith

40 snips

Jul 17, 2024

Join Steph Smith, host of the @a16z podcast and creator of Internet Pipes, as she dives into the evolving digital landscape shaped by AI. Discover how AI transforms creative processes, making it easier to translate abstract ideas into visually compelling art. Steph highlights quirky niche creators and discusses the importance of maintaining authenticity amidst tech advancements. Explore innovative AI tools that enhance creativity and even aid in scientific research. This lively conversation is a feast for anyone passionate about internet creation!

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

ADVICE

Pick A Lane, But Leave Room To Roam

Pick a specific lane repeatedly so you can occasionally wander out without losing audience clarity.
Use a baseline focus to grant freedom for occasional deep, personal digressions.

ANECDOTE

Full-Time Job As Creative Safety

Steph keeps a full-time job to fund creative experiments and force prioritization of passion projects.
The time constraint becomes a feature: she only pursues projects that truly excite her.

ANECDOTE

Micro-Creators Who Capture Attention

Steph rapidly showcased niche creators: a forager, sidewalk-chalk artist, acorn sculptor, rock balancer, calligrapher, and close-up match/macro creators.
These varied micro-arts illustrate how focused curiosity builds audience and surprise.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Steph Smith is the ultimate internet explorer.

I spent an hour talking to her about the future of creating on the internet in the age of AI. She’s our first-ever repeat guest, and if you watch the episode you’ll see why: It’s a curious, fun, experimental romp through the best of the digital world.

We try out four underrated AI products, go through a list of Steph’s favorite niche internet creators, and follow her creative process in Midjourney in granular detail.

We had a wide-ranging discussion about:
- How AI changes what humans perceive as valuable in art and creativity
- The type of AI tools that are poised for success
- How AI narrows the gap between ideas and execution

If you don’t know her, Steph is the host of the @a16z podcast and the creator behind Internet Pipes, a toolkit to surface useful insights on the internet, and many other cool internet projects.

This is a must-watch if you make things on the internet and are interested in how AI is changing what it means to be a creator—and how creator businesses work.

If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share!

Want even more?
Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free.

To hear more from Dan Shipper:
- Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe
- Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper

Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Teaser
00:00:46 - Introduction
00:09:08 - How Steph uses Midjourney to find her aesthetic
00:20:45 - Steph predicts how creating on the internet will evolve with AI
00:32:51 - Rapid-fire rundown of Steph's favorite niche creators
00:42:58 - How Steph trains her brain on better data
00:48:19 - The AI research tool Steph uses for health information
00:56:25 - The future of AI tools—and one of Steph's top picks
01:01:20 - Dan and Steph use AI to create a simulation of the internet
01:05:09 - How LLM hallucinations can be useful
01:12:06 - Dan and Steph make a song about what they learned on the show

Links to resources mentioned in the episode:
Steph Smith: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio
Internet Pipes: https://internetpipes.com/
Doing Content Right: https://doingcontentright.com/#features
A few of Steph’s favorite niche creators: India Rose Crawford https://www.instagram.com/indiarosecrawford/?hl=en , Blackforager https://www.instagram.com/blackforager/?hl=en , David Zinn https://www.instagram.com/davidzinn/?hl=en , David Bird https://www.instagram.com/davidmbird/ , WatchMaggiePaint https://www.instagram.com/watchmaggiepaint/?hl=en
The podcast episode Dan did with filmmaker Dave Clark: https://every.to/chain-of-thought/how-a-hollywood-director-uses-ai-to-make-movies
The AI tools Dan and Steph use on the show: Consensus https://consensus.app/ , Globe Explorer https://explorer.globe.engineer/ , websim.ai http://websim.ai , Granola https://www.granola.so/ , Suno https://suno.com/