Welcome to the 2nd edition of AI Side Chats — a new companion to my newsletter, AI Side Notes. These are short (15-20 minutes), informal conversations with fellow Substackers, journalists, and independent voices in the AI space. They’re not polished interviews or breaking news, just candid back-and-forths that pull back the curtain on how we think about AI, the stories we chase, and the messy realities of covering (and living with) this technology.
This time I reached out to Carl Franzen, a former colleague at VentureBeat, who was one of the first people I knew who was all-in on AI art back in 2023. To be frank, he pushed us to use generative AI images for our VentureBeat stories, since we did not have access to Getty Images or another image licensing service. From the start, he was also very interested in the growing startups in the AI image and video space, like Stable Diffusion, Midjourney and Runway, and began experimenting on his own with a variety of AI art tools.
Now Carl runs a Substack called Prompt Scene, on which he immediately writes on the About page “Sorry, haters — generative AI isn’t going anywhere. While some people are complaining about the arrival of new technology and how it was made, a growing number of enterprising creators aren’t waiting for permission or approval.” Prompt Scene highlights a variety of AI creators, and Carl makes clear that it is NOT about AI “slop,” a term that has become a synonym of sorts for generative AI art.
It’s about a new art form, he says, explaining that “every new creative culture deserves its own publication of record.”
Agree or disagree? Let me know. As always, I welcome your thoughts — who else should I sit down with for future Side Chats? 🤔
