Creatives of all stripes, from musicians to YouTubers, have been fretting about how AI might put them out of work. Yet plenty have also been exploring how AI can help them to do that work better.
It should come as no surprise to see one of the biggest AI firms, OpenAI, leaning strongly into the latter dynamic. It’s building a team of people to work with ‘creators’ by tapping one of the most established companies in that space: Patreon.
Its co-founder, president and CTO Sam Yam announced this week that he’s joining AI “to lead Creator Product” at the company. “Coming with me are my favorite crew Drew Rowny and Shannon Ma, Patreon’s (now former) Head of Product and Head of Engineering,” he tweeted.
“We’re going to build together with Creators at OpenAI and share early access to a new set of tools that I think will be critically valuable to Creators and their communities.”
Yam may have been anticipating a backlash to his move, so posted some follow-up tweets stressing “I believe human creativity is paramount” and encouraging his followers to “pay attention to OpenAI DevDay next week”.
That’s a developer event on 29 September, complete with an Apple/Spotify-style livestreamed keynote. Yam’s post hints that some creator tools or features for ChatGPT may be announced there.
The news also creates a short-term challenge for Patreon, which at a stroke has lost its CTO and co-founder, its head of product and head of engineering.