Conversation Changers: Navigating the New Frontier of AI and Creativity with Micaela Mantegna

Описание: “The problem is not that AI is taking your job, the problem is that AI is taking your income… it’s a problem about redistribution of wealth.” — Micaela Mantegna

In this episode of Conversation Changers, host Eric Olander explores the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) and its profound implications for human creativity and copyright law. While AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude have become essential for productivity, handling everything from financial forecasting to complex translations, their role in the creative arts remains a subject of intense debate.

Eric is joined by Micaela Mantegna, a renowned lawyer and digital ethics activist, to look beyond the “AI vs. Humans” binary. Together, they discuss the “waves” of AI development, the concept of “cognitive offloading,” and why the current focus on expanding copyright law may actually be a “shallow narrative” that fails to protect the most vulnerable workers in the global tech economy.

Key Highlights From This Episode:

Beyond the Binary: Why viewing AI solely as a threat to creativity ignores the potential for machines to act as tools for enhancement.

The Next Frontier: How AI is moving from mimicking intelligence to mimicking empathy, potentially becoming our assistants, companions, and even therapists.

The “Meh” Moment: Addressing the current quality of AI output—often described as “AI slop”—and whether it is atrophying our critical thinking skills.

Redefining Copyright: Mantegna argues that copyright is not the answer to generative AI; instead, we must address the redistribution of wealth and the “stratification of labor.”

Digital Sovereignty: The importance of regional models like “Latam GPT” to combat the cultural bias built into mainstream AI systems.

About The Guest

Micaela, known as the 'Abogamer', is a video game lawyer and activist who is internationally renowned for her expertise in digital ethics, extended reality (XR) policy, and the complex relationship between artificial intelligence, creativity, and copyright law. In 2022, Micaela was chosen for the prestigious TED Fellowship, and her TED talk on the metaverse earned 1.5M+ views globally. Currently, she is an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University, while also serving on Chatham House's Responsible AI Taskforce, the World Economic Forum's Metaverse Council, and the Scientific Committee of UAMetaverse Chair, positions that highlight Micaela as a global thought leader in Generative AI, ethics, videogames, and metaverse policy. As a keynote speaker, she has presented in conferences in over 28 countries. She is the author of "ARTEficial: Creativity, Artificial Intelligence and Copyright” (2022) and the upcoming "Braindancing in the Metaverse: a capitalism of cognitive surveillance".

Follow Micaela on:

Salzburg Global Fellow Page: https://www.salzburgglobal.org/person...
Substack:   / abogamer  
LinkedIn:   / micaelamantegna  

Read ‘ARTEficial: Creatividad, Inteligencia Artificial y Derecho de Autor here: https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Micaela-M...

Read Micaela’s essay ‘ARTificial: Why Copyright Is Not the Right Policy Tool to Deal with Generative AI’ here: https://yalelawjournal.org/forum/arti...


About The Host

Eric Olander is a veteran journalist and media executive with over 30 years of experience reporting for world-leading organizations including CNN, France 24, and the BBC World Service. He is a Salzburg Global Fellow and the Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The China-Global South Project, an independent media initiative exploring global engagement with the developing world.

Follow Eric on:

Salzburg Global Fellow Page: https://www.salzburgglobal.org/person...
LinkedIn:   / olander  

Find out more about Salzburg Global here: https://www.salzburgglobal.org/

Subscribe to the 'Conversation Changers' podcast on your prefered podcast platform here: https://lnkfi.re/ConversationChangers