Happy holidays and welcome to Leapfrog, a podcast exploring global entrepreneurs beyond the American-centric bubble. Thanks for your patience with the delayed update, but this episode will be worth the wait!🎄🤶

2024 has flown by, punctuated by continued breakthroughs in generative AI. In this episode, I speak to Raven Gao, a philosophy enthusiast turned computer science graduate who is building an AI platform for generating anime-style characters. As of today, the tool, called PixAI, has attracted over 5 million users, primarily from the US and Japan.

This wide-ranging conversation began with Raven’s formative years, where he found solace in meeting international friends through video games. This experience would later inspire him to create a similar “metaverse” for people to form genuine connections. Raven explains how anime lovers use AI to visualize their fantasies, the pros and cons of consuming AI-generated content, and why, after developing tools for anime fans, he wants to empower professional artists as well.

Raven also warns of developing emotional attachments to virtual characters, while acknowledging the tricky balance between AI safety and user experience. That raises an even deeper question: what kind of relationship with AI should we, as a society, strive for?

Timeline

1:34 Raven’s free-ranging adolescence and his online friends

6:47 Why Raven was drawn to utilitarianism and why he abandoned philosophy

9:27 The lack of cultural diversity in early AI models

12:45 The essence of metaverse (vs a Zoom call)

14:20 Youngsters who are “overlooked” seek comfort in AI chatbots

16:30 How to prevent AI from doing harm and why it’s easier said than done

20:45 With generative AI, creation is consumption

25:46 The danger of consuming the content one creates for themselves

29:22 Empowering Japan’s exploited anime artists with an AI tool

33:06 Recommendations

Mentions

The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman

Utilitarianism, the ethical theory developed by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill

Can A.I. Be Blamed for a Teen’s Suicide? (New York Times, October 2024)

Principles of Economics by Gregory Mankiw

*The cover photo is a screenshot of the Christmas-themed images I generated on PixAI.

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