Web3 Culture: Gaming, Art & Creator Economies

All right, awesome. So, we're gonna go ahead and get started with introductions. So, whoever wants to go first.

Okay. Yeah, I'll go first. Um, so this is actually my first ever panel speaking. So, super excited to be at Boston Blockchain Week. Thank you for having me.

Uh, so a little bit about my history. I started a podcast called Crypto Humility where we do street interviews in Boston and we actually gather feedback from the public about what they know about crypto, blockchain, AI, their overall thoughts about it. And um in in response to that, I try to educate the public every single week about where we currently stand in crypto and AI and where we still need to go to get to where we want to be with this industry.

Very nice.

Hello everyone. My name is George Hu. I'm the founder of Danak Maddo. Dan Maddo is a decentralized marketplace for agentic commerce. uh it's a place for uh AI agents to discover each other to pay each other uh for information services or even physical goods and also for agents to buy or license digital assets which includes like art, photography, videos and anything digital and useful.

AI agents buy or license those digital assets on behalf of their human users. Very nice. And as you guys already know, I'm Lauren Wixom. I am the co-founder of Cubic Media. Um, so let's just go ahead and jump right into it.

So my first question is when AI is involved in creating an image, game asset, music, or other content, what does ownership actually mean? So who should have the rights to the final work?

I can go first. Um, so I I support largely the visionary because just like with a camera, let's say you guys have a super cool idea, you want to go out to Utah, you have this vision to shoot the shot, you know, you go out there, you use the camera to create that image, but do we then give Sony, for example, the camera, the camera company, the actual ownership of that image, or was it you that in fact created it yourself? And I think that largely on a business scale as well when we think about business and having an idea and creating it, you know, are are we does the website that we use to create our business idea then get ownership of our idea because it's the one that's helping us create that that vision. So I largely think that a lot of visionaries generally speaking I know in some cases is not all the time with AI but majority of the time I give the right to the visionary who's actually thinking about the idea and and generating that no matter what tool they're using and I think we can commonly say that AI is a tool that we can use and you know there's a dangerous game to play with that as we're evolving with policy and regulation in AI but uh I'm a big advocate for the visionary and the business owner having that that ownership of whatever they created with that AI tool.

Well, I can make a few comments as a engineer from a technical uh point of view. Uh so uh not that being a lawyer so I can answer that question but my comments would be uh when AI creates something right it may involve um many pieces of other works or um IP that other people already own right. So I think technically the key is that to identify what pieces owned by what and what represent those ownerships, right? So when you put multiple pieces of contents together and uh as a human user you create uh another comprehensive piece of work new work maybe uh but that also have things coming from other people that who has ownership um so I think it's important to identify who owns which piece all right and then you put it together and then maybe come up with some kind of a composite ownership. Um, so that would be my comments.

I love that and I also agree with what Vanessa said, like yeah, just because you use a Sony camera doesn't mean that, you know, Sony owns that photo that you took or that video that you took. So, love that point of view there. Um, so on to the next question. So, AI makes it easier than ever to create, obviously. Um, but it can also make it easier for someone's work or style to be used without permission.

Um, so how do we balance AI as a creative tool with the need to protect creators?

Oh, okay. Yeah, I can go first. Um, so I think I think social media was largely built for inspiration, which is being able to bounce off each other's ideas and and now with the evolution of Tik Tok, we're seeing that a lot of trends, you know, it's common for certain brands to pick up on certain trends and and alter them to make them their own unique, you know, fitting their brand is what I'm trying to say. So I think it's very common now to see an idea out there on social media and think that you know it would be perfect for your business. AI just makes it easier to to implement those ideas.

So I think it's a it's a very like case byase situation where you know if you're creating something that is really significant to your brand whether it be your logo or even just certain text and styles of content that you're creating. I think that's alleged that would we would need like AI regulation with and you know more protection with which we're still evolving. I also want to say that I don't think that for example Claude and Chat GBT have necessarily evolved to the point that they need to yet with protecting people who are creating images and even just content with them with Claude and ChatGBT. So, I think there has to be a huge difference between inspiration on social media and like using that inspiration and trends to to create your brand and and help promote your content versus gener generating something on AI that is truly yours that is consistent to your brand. At that point, I think we need more regulation and that's something that the space is still figuring out to this day.

Yeah. So um when people use AI to create things, create new content and they use AI and AI you know they can go to on the internet thinking you know scrap everything that that's available to the software. Uh I think it's important for uh creators to first of all make their work possible to be used legitimately okay by AI or by human beings. And right now I mean the social media platforms obvious is not designed that way right. So you post something on any social media your content is just being available there available for anybody or AI to download without payment or without any uh right recognition.

So I think the first thing is for a creator is to make it work possible for AI for or for other users to use legitimately. By that I mean it has to be on some platform that allow people or allow AI to license from you and paying you so then for it for for make it possible for other entities to use your work legitimately.

Awesome. And I believe that's what Dumbach Meadow does, right George?

Yes, exactly.

Awesome. All right. So, next question. So if a creator wants to use AI today, what should they consider before publishing, licensing or commercializing that work?

Okay, I can take this from a more fun perspective. I would say that there's nothing greater than staying authentic in the space, especially with AI and social media and trends. It's so easy to just follow along with somebody else's exact business model. You know, maybe you're following an influencer on social media that's, you know, teaching you how to scale your business, for example. So, I think that the the greatest thing that you could do to stay potentially out of trouble with AI or copy copyright or stealing someone's style is just follow what's true to your brand and your business and not, you know, leading into somebody's else's exact model, especially, you know, if you're AI generating somebody's exact model.

You're And I I really like what you said too about getting on maybe platforms that are already implementing these things with your work on AI to protect your your creations. I think that's really important. Hey, there there might be businesses, you know, out there that need to be created to help protect AI. And maybe that's why we're here today is to start having these conversations about using, you know, creating businesses that can help acknowledge AI, which yeah, you're already doing a lot of. So, um I think I think yeah, I think that's what I want to say.

Yeah, I think one other thing is that maybe you want to make it extremely transparent. you know, I create this with AI and I sourced from whatever sources, you know, I think that's probably a good way to go about it.

I have one other thing I can say too. I uh ran social media for American Bitcoin for a year and um I just want to say like I am a huge advocate for AI. I I know some people, you know, might think that it allows us to not really use our brain cells as much anymore, but I I think that, you know, there's such a principle of working smarter, not harder. And I think AI is that tool that really does advance us. And for somebody that runs social media for a public Bitcoin company at times, there was, you know, a need at a split second to have an image created, you know, to get this post out and AI has really helped us evolve that like fast news media.

So, you know, as much as some people may say, oh, you know, AI's we're not able to think critically anymore. I I would strongly disagree with that from a social media perspective, and I would say that it actually advances us immensely in getting news out there faster, getting your brand out there faster, uh, being able to be more independent. Uh, just a little side note that I wanted to say, but I'm I'm a pretty big advocate for for AI.

I really love that. And to kind of piggyback on that, I think so, I do music. I've done it for literally all my life. And I think that, you know, like Sunno, it's such a great tool for those who aren't able to get their foot in the door and afford like having music be produced alongside their voice or whatever instrument that they use. Um, but with that, it kind of makes me nervous because now they have a new um you can like put your voice on there and I'm not sure if I'd have to go back and look at the terms.

But one thing that makes me nervous about it is, okay, so if I like record my voice and then I can use that and it can create songs using my voice. Does Sunno own my voice? So I'm not sure if any of you know that or if either of you know, but I just found that interesting and I don't know, maybe I'll play with it, but I'm going to have to read up on that a little bit more.

Yeah, not huge into the music industry, but I think everybody can commonly agree here that we need regulation and AI and especially with, you know, using our voice and stuff. I am I'm not in the music industry, but I'm I fully agree there needs to be regulation within AI. And and that's the whole point of us coming up here to talk today is to hopefully spark some inspiration in somebody else to create that idea that's missing in the space and solve that problem that's missing in the space.

Yeah. And that's why it's so important like a musician like you, other musicians, you know, you could put your pieces in a platform such as Dumbag Maddo, you put your terms right there. you know what rights people will have when they license your music and when AI wants to use your music they also buy license from you you know automatically with programmatically and then pay you and they agree to the terms so I think that's extremely important

awesome all right so next question so um I believe this one's more for George so what would need to travel with the digital asset so that a person or AI agent understands who owns it so how can it be used and how the creator gets paid.

Yes, that's uh extremely important. We know you know the NFTs we we have seen NFT platforms in the past. you know people create digital assets and create NFTs underneath and they uh you know what usually the case is is that the platforms they have like a a term that governs all piece of digital assets and what's I what I think is important is that for every piece of digital asset right we create NFT and we at the at the same time the terms needs to be created okay so every p piece of a digital asset you you have an NFT represent ownership And then you have the terms that tied to the NFT. And then when the digital asset travels, the NFT travels with with it. And also the terms what exactly rights uh a lency or purchaser have when they purchase this NFT in other words this piece of digital assets.

So it's important for not only the NFT which represent ownership and but also the terms that's tied to the NFT travel with piece of digital asset.

Okay. Um so is player ownership in gaming ultimately the same challenge as creator ownership in art?

Yes, I do think so. I mean they are uh created by human users. uh they are all creation of uh you know somebody's uh creations and they have value in it and they they have ownership and embedded IP rights in it. So I have the same opinion that for those digital assets, they need uh the NFTs to represent the ownership as well as the NFT terms that specify exactly what rights it carries with it and for any potential lency or purchaser what rights they get when they buy this piece of asset.

Got it. Okay.

Um I could also add something to that. So, um, a little outside of the gaming scope because I'm not a huge gamer, but I I'm so excited to see in the space a lot more user governance. I'm so excited to see the evolution of web 3 and more businesses giving users more more ownership over the app. I think it would be amazing to see more businesses today give the users that are actually on the app every single day posting creating content have the right to to vote at the very least of where the platform is going to go you know what policy should be in place instead of just like a central governing body controlling you know where X is going for example or Instagram or it would be so cool to have a platform that the users actually get to vote where the platform goes because they're actively using it every day. So, when we talk about ownership in in gaming and um and just like in web 3 in general, there's so much to evolve, but I actually genuinely think that we're missing like voting systems and implementing those a lot more.

Um I'm actually creating a a platform uh in the space and and hopefully the goal is to be able to have more people be able to vote within it. What you know, what users stay, what content stays, what goes, what they want to see for the platform. And I think that's largely what blockchain, AI, and web 3 was created for is more power to the people, letting people decide, you know, where where certain things are going in the space and having more ownership and having more say. It's, you know, that that's the whole principle of of this industry is having more freedom and, you know, more power to people that actually believe in it.

Well said.

Thank you, reach. All right. Um, so how might digital twins, embedded chips or blockchain connect physical art and collectibles to the digital world? I feel like this has been an issue.

That's all you. That's all you.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, people have been um there's some uh people and startups trying to do that to try to bind the digital assets with the physical version together, but I'm not sure how successful those has been. um like betting chips into the physical arts but um I'm not sure I mean I I don't know if it's eventually can be done that way but as far as I'm concerned what I have known is that some artists they uh they have you know they create the physical art right and then possess the physical version but they also create a digital version of the art and they can go ahead and sell or license the digital digital version of the art. Uh that's the way to for them to monetize their work. U for the digital the physical version.

I mean I assume that could be sold without necessarily have to tie to the the digital version of the art. Um I don't know if that answers the question.

That's okay. Maybe in the future there'll be some sort of like QR code, some sort of nanotech that you just embed into the art piece or whatever physical asset you're trying to sell and then it just matches the digital version.

I think that's largely like why we're here too. I think it's awesome that you know you can come up on up here and say that you're not really sure yet because I think a lot of us are not really sure yet and that's why we're having these panels and these conversations is

to spark ideas within the community and and what other people may think so we can get resolution. Definitely. All right. So, closing question. What is one thing creators should do now to protect their work?

And what is one opportunity they should be excited about?

Well, um I think like I mentioned, one thing that creators should do is that make their work available, make it possible for AI or for other users to purchase to or to license to use it legitimately. Uh currently the social platforms are not designed that way. So the people even when people want to buy their art or p license the art there's no way to do it. Okay. So I built the platform Dback metal to allow creators to list their work in the marketplace and set their own terms set price for other people to license from or to purchase.

And one thing creators needs to get can get should get excited about is I know people creators worry about AI use the work steal the work. I think they should also be excited about the AI especially AI agent. Just think about you know in the future there will be more transactions conducted by AI agents instead of humans right so in the future there will be AI agents that will be purchasing or licensing their work and you know micro licenses microp payments and so the creators should really make their work available not only for human users but also for AI agents to do programmatic licensing and payments. Greatly said. Um, I just want to say I think that one thing that everybody should be excited about, especially with AI, maybe Chat GBT and Claude is having more independence within your business, having more freedom to get things done a little bit faster.

And I can give you guys a real example. So, I run CryptoKum Humility. Obviously, we do street interviews in Boston and I do the weekly news. And in doing that, you know, I'm running around doing a gazillion things. I don't really have time to edit a an hourong podcast episode where a guest is coming on and I'm adding all these features.

So, I use Riverside and Riverside is actually an AI podcasting platform. Heavily recommended if you ever have meetings and whatnot. But, uh, in I it took my editing time down from an hour and a half to maybe like 20 minutes just using the AI tools to help generate it. So, I would say to anybody that's listening, get excited about, you know, new technology. And I think largely a big part of America and having the American spirit is is innovation.

You know, we're the country of innovation and trying new things and and um I think AI is largely that answer in marketing, in social media, in running a business and let's say you're running a startup. It's a co-pilot. So I think that on and speaking on claude and chat GBT a little a little offchain and more in the media world, I think that AI is a great asset to advance people. And if I could just say one last thing, you know, I do street interviews in in Boston. And if you're from Boston, I just want to let you guys know that we have a lot more work to do here in regards to web 3, crypto, and AI.

Um, there's a lot of people I talk to on the street. Sometimes we'll go out for a full day and nobody knows anything about what we're talking about. And, you know, it's my job to go out there and educate them. So, you know, if you're in Boston and you're in this space, it it's needed more now than ever outside of AI, crypto, and web 3 as well. So, continue to do the work that you're doing.

It's really needed and one step at a time, you know, we're gonna make we're going to make Boston more of a crypto capital. Thank you.

Yes, I love that. And I use Riverside and I love it. So,

I second Riverside.

Um, and then for me, I'm going to answer the question, um, so what is one thing creators should do now to protect their work? And for me, that is to just read the terms. you know, make sure that at the end of the day, whatever platform you're using, that you know, whatever you create, you own that at the end of the day and that you're not sharing rights with whatever company, whatever platform you decide to use. But, um, anything else? Any other comments?

No.

All right, we're all done here. Thank you guys so much.