Culture & Code

This is a conversation with Ian Beecraft, who is the CEO of Signal and Cipher, an innovation and design agency helping companies navigate the impact of AI to drive the future of work. Previously responsible for innovation departments at some of the largest ad agencies in the world, Ian has advised brands including Samsung, Intel, Coca-Cola and dozens more about the impact of emerging technologies on their business. Ian is a classically trained musician, a strategist and keynote speaker, and was the first person ever to host a news segment as a synthetic human, streaming to over 100 million devices around the world. At SXSW 2024 Ian gave a featured presentation called Billion-Dollar Teams The Future of the AI Powered Workforce. We'll explore some of the insights offered in that keynote, with special emphasis on AI's impact creative professionals.

This is a conversation with Alvin Wang Graylin, who has over 30 years experience driving innovation in the AI, XR and semiconductor industries. As China President of HTC between 2016 and 2023, Graylin elevated the company to a prominent global position in the virtual reality and augmented reality spaces. Currently, Alvin is global VP for Corporate Development, HTC, vice chair of the Industry of Virtual Reality Alliance and the president of the Virtual Reality Venture Capital Alliance. We're focusing on his new book co-written with Dr. Louis Rosenberg, “Our Next Reality: How the AI Powered Metaverse Will Reshape the World.” I asked him if he could apply its core learnings, storytellers, artists and others who create culture as part of their profession. What does the AI powered metaverse mean for creators? Where do they start and how do they thrive?

This show is a conversation with Rishad Tobaccowala, a genuine big thinker who helps organizations stay relevant and innovative during times of great change. His bestselling book, Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Age of Data, ricocheted across c-suites and boardrooms with his message of how to be smart with data while staying true to human values. His newsletter, called The Future does Not Fit in the Containers of the Past, is read by over 30,000 global leaders each week. Rishad is also host of the What Next podcast, where he speaks with leaders across business, technology, academia and the arts on how to make sense of the change is transforming us all. In this show, Rashad and I will explore the impact of artificial intelligence on the creative industries as a leading indicator of what's in store for the rest of society. We'll use a three-part framework that we drew from one of his newsletters. Roots & Wings, Story & Spreadsheet, and Core & Edge Power to explore how individual creators and organizations can move beyond the hype surrounding AI, and focus on the real changes it brings.  

This show will examine what we learned in Austin for how storytelling mainstreams AI into daily life. We’ll use three broad themes drawn from our panel plus several interviews we conducted at this year’s festival: 1.) Why storytelling is foundational for human life, work and play. 2.) How Generative AI transforms storytelling and change our ideas about the storyteller. 3.) How human-driven, AI-powered storytelling can  help people reorient their future, and how you can to do today.  

This show is a conversation with Debra Aho Williamson, a research analyst and market influencer for the social media landscape at Insider Intelligence and eMarketer. Deborah played a pivotal role to shape the discourse around social media marketing, advertising and usage. Deborah and I will explore how AI is redefining the way marketing and advertising is conducted for social media. We'll focus on meta as the primary lens because of its size and influence on the industry, but AI's implications for social media marketing and advertising go well beyond a single company to include popular culture and government policy itself.

Evette Vargas, a Hollywood-based screenwriter and producer across multiple media formats talks about the writing process, the role of AI in Hollywood, and upcoming projects at her production company Indigo Reign Films.

Our interview with voice actress, and artist advocate Carin Gilfry digs into the three C’s of AI & Voice Acting: Consent, Control & Compensation in the Age of AI in Hollywood and beyond

This show is a conversation about AI and fashion. Culture & Code spoke with Carl-Axel Wahlström, a senior creative director and consultant for the fashion industry based in Stockholm, Sweden. Carl is the CEO of the Copy Laboratory, a full service studio that uses AI to redefine visual storytelling for the fashion industry. This interview explores the background, the current practice, and the likely future of AI for fashion media.

Culture & Code recently spoke with Chris Browne, an acclaimed filmmaker and visual effects artist. Chris traces his passion for visual storytelling back to his childhood days experimenting with a video camera to make homemade science fiction films. His early artistic experiments ignited a lifelong calling.

Keith spent his early 20s working in famous but dirty recording studios in New York, producing projects for various media and even playing keys for Lauryn Hill. He was still sleeping on couches and floors when he got a gig at Audible.com, becoming one of the top audiobook directors for Audible Studios. He even got to work with some famous humans and direct a few award-winning audiobooks. After many years of directing at Audible and having had enough winter, Keith relocated to Dallas, Texas, the hometown of hisbeautiful and far-more-impressive-than-he wife. Dallas also happens to be home to a thriving voiceover industry, which worked out nicely for him as he is utterly unqualified to work as a banker, rancher or hipster. Keith no longer sleeps on floors but does enjoy the occasional couch nap.