Blockchain could be the answer to getting AI artists paid (w/ Dee Goens)

08 Mar 2024 (9 months ago)

Zora Platform and Growth

Zora is a platform and protocol that helps developers and creators bring their ideas on-chain and on Ethereum through an open and shared environment.
Zora has over 51,000 active creators and 478,000 monthly transacting users.
Creators on Zora have made over $1.3 million in the last 30 days by posting their content on the platform.
Zora's growth is attributed to manual onboarding, lucrative incentives through their protocol rewards model, and serving a unique customer base including brands.
D30 retention at Zora is 73.8%, indicating a high level of user retention.

Co-founder Jacob Horn wrote an essay exploring the intersection of blockchain and AI, highlighting the alignment of their goals in putting information on-chain for valuation and free access.
Zora has a long history of working with AI, including helping to mint the Holly+ models on Zora in 2022.
Zora approaches AI through three pillars: models, tools, and output.
The company believes that all three of these components will eventually find their way on-chain.
Zora is currently working on bringing AI models and tools on-chain, including launching the ability to create new images using the Stability AI API in the Zora create flow.
Zora has built-in on-chain splits for the creators of both the Stability AI model and the inference provider, allowing model creators to capture value from their models' output.
There is high demand for AI tools among creators, as they enable individuals without full production capabilities to create films, scores, and images.
Stability AI and Fou are excited about the potential of AI-generated content and see it as a new way for model creators to capture value from their outputs.

The future of AI and crypto is seen as a collision course between crypto's ability to prove ownership and aggregate value, and the traditional IP system.
AI needs blockchain more than blockchain needs AI for safety, verification, authentication, and provenance.
Crypto can survive without AI, but society needs cryptographically proving things.
Decentralization and transparency are important for AI models to ensure users can make informed decisions about which models to use.
Putting AI models on the blockchain can provide observability and allow users to choose models that align with their preferences, potentially leading to a market-driven selection of models based on user choices.

Zora's platform has a unique and futuristic vibe compared to other NFT platforms.
Zora has made a conscious effort to create a more social and approachable experience for non-crypto native users.
Brand is more important than community because it's an instrument used to build and grow a community.

Ethical concerns for NFT artists using AI include attribution, shared economics, and avoiding copycat risks.
Zora, an NFT platform, implements automatic splits to the original creators when their work is remixed, ensuring shared economics and proper attribution.

The speaker advises against being precious about creative expressions on Zora and encourages artists to mint their work without worrying about perfection, as the first mint is often not as significant as it seems.
The speaker shares a piece of advice from their blog post called "Start Here," which encourages creators to "don't be precious" and use platforms like Zora to express their wildest and freest creative expressions without fear of judgment.