‘While These Visions Did Appear’: The Use of AI in Art Therapy

Posted on by SB Fisher

That art has therapeutic benefits is intuitive knowledge for us humans. Art’s been our way since time immemorial of accessing the core of our complex feelings – and communicating it if we so choose. 

Art therapy is a well-known, long-standing field for helping people find peace, settle anxiety, and overcome trauma. Before generative AI was even a twinkle in the eye of ML scientists, community groups and individual therapists were using art as a way of helping people come to terms with the difficult aspects of their own soul and find peace. It works. It works really well.

But art is difficult to produce. As T.S Eliot says, “between the conception and creation, between the emotion and response, falls the shadow”. The shadow of inability, perhaps. The frustration at the divide between the imagined and the constructed. A gap that fuels self-doubt, a chasm that dissuades action. 

Art therapy can also be of limited use to those with disabilities, cognitive impairments, issues with physical aptitude and coordination, or those who simply don’t have an ‘eye’ for it. For those people, the wonders of art therapy can feel out of reach, or even be completely closed off. 

A self-conscious understanding of one’s lack of talent, and inability to get what’s in their head onto the page, is hardly therapeutic. On the contrary, it can feel damning. This is where generative AI could have a spectacular role in opening up the therapeutic benefits of art to millions. 

There is enormous benefit to manifesting the visions that are in your head, regardless of the route to the creation of it. Before generative AI was a thing, people worked hard to get better at art just because of how desperate they were to get the visions out in the first place, because they understood the value of the end-product for themselves, not just the process of the creation.

The new wave of image-generating AIs that take text prompts and turn them into images that would take unskilled artists years to learn to create (and skilled artists days or weeks to do), can be a boon to those suffering from mental health issues. Seeing the strange fancies of your imagination consecrated into fully realised artworks is a truly liberating, joyous, and uplifting experience. For some it’s the pleasure of a new toy. For others, it may well save their lives. Especially as conscious awareness of the power of these tools is inducted into the wider world of professional psychology.

Credit: Tesfu Assefa

At a basic level, AI art can give life to inner visions and allow those who feel creatively stunted to experience the power of manifestation. On a more complex level, AI generative tools could be used to address the specific trauma and difficulties an individual is facing. With the help of trained art therapists, and with the further refinement of the AI techniques, AIs like DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion could and should be used to bring peace to those who suffer. 

There is still work to be done at these inchoate stages to make these tools suitable for more complex tasks. Ensuring that output is well-defined and predisposed to heal, not hurt, would be an important start. Loosening sanitisation features in a way that would allow those with PTSD and the victims of serious trauma-inducing crimes to explore their nature is equally important. These complex tools continue to be simplified and made more accessible, and we still need legions of art therapists who know how to best deploy them. 

It’s not just serious cases though. The average individual – even creative ones – the idea of finding the time to do art is faintly ridiculous. Alongside working eight hours a day, looking after the children, tidying the house, and other daily tasks that make up adult life, to then find time to explore and connect with their creative side is a quaint idea. 

However with AI generative art, people who have let their creative side lapse, and their mental health lapse with it, can find an easy route to commune with the parts of their subconscious they have left in abeyance. And in doing so experience at least in part the obvious benefits we receive from practising creative skills.

For most involved with or interested in generative AI, it’s about upheaval: rewiring economic systems, rewriting social contracts, creating new labour-models that lead – with luck – to better societies. Yet the use of AI in Art Therapy shows that it is not all about disruption and chaos, but also reflection and peace. AI art gives each man the chance to talk to his own personal genius through a robo-muse: to tell the stories he has always wanted to tell, to, in the words of Dalí, “see the most inaccessible regions of the seen and the never seen… to imagine in order to pierce through walls and cause all the planetary Baghdads of his dreams to rise from the dust”.

Let us know your thoughts! Sign up for a Mindplex account now, join our Telegram, or follow us on Twitter. 

The Need to Talk: AI as Antidote to the Loneliness Epidemic

Posted on by SB Fisher

Loneliness is an epidemic. It’s an epidemic that kills. It may be the greatest public health crisis of the coming decades, and, by its very nature, it remains hidden from most people’s view. Yes everyone feels lonely from time to time, but for some, loneliness is a disease that – even with their best efforts – they are not able to cure. For some people, sure, ‘getting out more’ may just be a case of overcoming bad habits, or taking a chance on a new activity. For many others, it’s a far more sinister and complex problem. Can AI help provide the solution?

Many sectors of society suffer from loneliness. Old people in particular often find themselves isolated, economically and socially, from the world around them. When people stop caring about what you have to say, and feel like your contribution to society is done, it’s hard to make new friends. It’s especially hard for those whose families have died or emigrated. They are left with no one in the world.

Those who suffer mental health problems like depression also find themselves fading out from the world, only to return to find that everyone they used to know in it has gone. The socially anxious may be desperate to make new friends, but the oppressive weight of their symptoms makes it impossible. LGBTQIA+ people often suffer extreme loneliness as their sexuality isolates them from the people around them, especially in cultures where such identification is taboo. 

Even young, mentally well, culturally conformant people might simply have no friends, even though they try, and even though they are likeable. 40% of 16-24 years say they feel lonely, a frankly staggering number. Loneliness strikes everywhere. Some people work every waking hour. Some people have to travel as part of their daily lives. Some people find themselves in a new country with a difficult new language. The modern era has broken apart the foundations of community that knit our little societies together for millenia. 

We humans are social creatures. Historically, humans didn’t travel very far – they barely got beyond the village. The social centres around which they operated – the baths, the brewey, the mudhif, chitalishte, Palace of Culture, and the village green – these local hubs have faded from existence, replaced by the seductive glow of tv screens. 

The rise of late-stage capitalism has siphoned people away from their nuclei and increasingly individualised – and isolated – them. The cubicle existence of the modern world, both in the workplace and in housing (with ever-greater numbers living alone), and the depreciation of the family unit, have created room for loneliness to grow around all members of society. We are not evolutionarily equipped to cope: our cells, our brains, our minds, our hormonal systems weren’t built to live like this.

Credit: Tesfu Assefa

The information age caused the problem, but it may also have the solution. The internet has certainly done much to help people find like-minded groups. Many slip through the nets, and this is where humanity’s next great wonder, AI, may well provide a cure. Chatbots are good at, well, chatting. If you need someone (or something) to talk to, the fact of the modern world is – if you can suspend your Turing-sensitive mind – you now can. 

Chatbots are now sophisticated enough to provide a good simulacrum of conversation, and they are adapted enough to be supportive, informative, helpful, and generally ‘there for you’. Almost every ChatGPT interaction ends with ‘if there is anything else you need.’ Well, some people just need it to be there and, provided Microsoft’s data centres don’t collapse, it always will be.

The powerful possibilities of this are not lost on researchers, charities, and campaigners. Many companies are now seeking to provide AI companions to provide emotional support to those who are vulnerable. One of the leading ones, Replika, promises an AI companion that is unique to you; it records your particular interactions, allowing it to target comforting and kind words, and to grow in understanding of your situation. 

The modern tech world is so often geared towards polarising us and driving us apart. This is a direction of travel that is only going faster with the advent of AI, with algorithms designed to sort us into camps and feed us the ragebait so we engage. It would be good if we could instead take a difficult approach, and focus on creating AIs that are compassionate, and algorithms that are built to bring us together. 

AI companions are a compelling antidote to loneliness, but we must be careful of overindulging in mimicry. Her, a movie which has only grown in cultural importance since its 2013 release, shows the perils of thinking of nothing else but this machine. In that movie, the titular AI was a more fully-fledged ‘consciousness’, but in this age of breached Turing tests – what’s the difference? Imitation companionship is close to the real thing: you still get to express your feelings. You still get someone – or something – else’s perspective on it. 

The best scenario is one where these AI companions map a route back to human-to-human relationships. Perhaps, as they become more sophisticated and more entwined with our lives, AI companions could be the jumping-off point for those with social anxiety or those who are all alone to begin to find like-minded people. An AI bot who someone spends their days talking to should know their interlocutor intimately and, with correctly safeguarded data controls, be able to perhaps ‘introduce’ them to others who feel the same way they do, and give them an opportunity to forge real connections in an increasingly unreal world.

Let us know your thoughts! Sign up for a Mindplex account now, join our Telegram, or follow us on Twitter. 

Tokenomics: A Guide For Crypto Beginners

Posted on by Werner

It’s 2024, the bull market is back (or nearly back), and all of crypto and Web3 is predictably awash once again with new projects launching amidst much fanfare from a horde of new investors and the influencers shilling them. It’s nothing new, and anyone that experienced the ICO boom in 2017 and the bull market of 2020-2021 can tell you that if you don’t know what you’re investing in, you’re going to be left with a big bag of nothing at the end of the day. 

You could have the best project in the world, but if you don’t get the balance right for example between how many tokens you give early investors and when they unlock, your cryptocurrency is doomed. 

A fundamental concept to figure out for both project founders and investors is tokenomics: the study of the supply, demand, distribution, and valuation of cryptocurrencies. Get it right, and you could be the new big thing, get it wrong, and you’re dead in the water as soon as you launch. 

Understanding tokenomics

Let’s talk about the basics before we jump into the pie charts. Even if you are ready to invest, make sure you first understand how a token’s model affects its short-term and long-term price action. 

Here are some essential terms to understand for new retail crypto investors. 

Presales: seed rounds, private rounds and angel investors

Most token models, regardless of their current market cap or utilities, began relatively unknown and required investments from venture capitalists, founders, or early adopters taking a huge risk. This even more so during periods of low market interest, like 2022’s bear market. 

Presales

Tokens are sold to a select group of investors before the public sale. This phase allows the project to raise funds and generate interest before the public launch.

Seed Rounds

Seed round funding is typically provided by angel investors, venture capital firms, or strategic partners. In the context of crypto tokenomics, a portion of the tokens is allocated to seed round investors, usually around 10%. 

Private Round(s)

Private rounds in crypto tokenomics involve the sale of tokens to a limited group of investors – often institutional or accredited investors – before the public sale. This phase allows the project to raise a significant amount of capital and build strategic partnerships. The allocation of tokens in private rounds varies, but typically it’s a smaller percentage than the public sale. Private rounds are sometimes split between private and strategic rounds. 

Public Round

In the public round, tokens are sold to the general public, often following a well-advertised launch event. This model aims to distribute tokens widely and build a community. It’s a crucial step in the fundraising process for a cryptocurrency project. During the public sale, interested individuals can acquire tokens using widely-used cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum. The public sale is essential for raising capital and fostering a sense of community among a diverse group of token holders. 

Here’s an example of a breakdown of Coin A:

Seed Round: Cost $0.03 per token (5% of total supply)

Private Round: Cost $0.05 per token (7.5% of total supply)
Strategic Round: Cost $0.08 per token (5% of total supply)

Public Round: Cost $0.12 per token (12.5% of total supply)

To compensate and return the favor to these investors for helping keep the lights on, tokens are usually reserved before the launch begins, often at a much lower price than what retail investors will pay during the ICO. However, these tokens are not just handed over with no strings attached, which brings us to our next topic:

Credit: Tesfu Assefa

Vesting schedules and token distribution

We don’t want early investors selling their tokens for a fraction of the price retail investors did: this would crash the price due to low overall liquidity. To prevent this, their coins are often released over time, on what is called a vesting schedule. In fact, when a coin is first publicly available during its ICO, a large majority of the full supply is usually still locked up until later, when more demand is present, or locked so it can only be received by common methods such as staking or providing liquidity to the token. 

To understand the distribution system of most tokens, let’s analyze the current degen darling, Solana (SOL), and how it was allocated during its launch.

Credit: Coinbase

Before you ask, SBF purchased his infamous stake in Solana for $0.20 per token during the founding sale, two years before the public auction began in March of 2020.

Notice that only 1.60% of the total supply was released during the ICO on Coinlist, but if we observe the chart below, besides staking rewards, very few new tokens were introduced to the market until December of the same year.

Credit: CoinGecko

Both early investors and ICO buyers consider the longevity of a token when they purchase a brand new token. If the team gets the proportions wrong, or plans to release tokens too quickly or too slowly, private and retail investors would consider the protocol greedy or even assume a slow rug pull (where the team fade away after raising funds) is waiting for them.

Cool story, what’s the takeaway?

When you’re looking up the tokenomics of a token, make sure you take into account the vesting schedule of that coin and plan your purchase accordingly. If you fully send a market buy order, but it’s the day before the early investor tokens unlock, how will your shiny new internet monies change in value? It will put you underwater immediately. 

This information is always immediately available on the project website, or the launchpad for both new and old tokens, so let’s cover what you need to be looking for before you start sprinting the first 100 meters of the 2024 bull market marathon. 

Green flags

Token disclosure: If there is missing data about how many of the tokens exist, how they are allocated post-ICO, the seed sale allocations, etc, steer clear immediately. This lack of information is common with scam and low market cap tokens, and it becomes an expensive lesson in doing your research if you impulsively buy newly tokens or random coins on trendy launchpads.

Supply and demand match up: even if the tokenomics looks great and there’s high demand, does the token actually have a use case? Will it sit in your wallet collecting dust until it’s sold later? Because if it is, that’s the case for everyone else as well. Functions such as staking, yield farming, and burn mechanics dictate how much of the supply is actively being productive or locked up, lowering the supply actively being traded.  

Team and community: Even if the token model looks promising and its use case is clear, are the community and team on the same page? A successful tokenomics model aligns the interests of the core project team with those of the community and early investors. This is hard to measure without going deep into the project’s Discord, Telegram group, or Twitter comments, but is time well spent. The difference between a hidden gem with 100x potential and a complete scam is often community involvement.

Red flags

Market cap is unsustainable: Have you ever looked at a token’s value and thought, “wow, this is criminally undervalued, why is that?” Immediately calculate or look up the fully diluted value (FDV), a key metric, which accounts for tokens still vesting or not yet active such as staking rewards or treasury holdings. 

Slow rugs or dishonest founders will try to mislead traders into thinking they’ve found a diamond in the rough, by gaming the system that ranks their token by market cap to appear undervalued. However, when you see a new token with an FDV worth a billion, tread carefully. 

Unclear use-case: Is it a gaming token, a utility token, or a meme? The use of a token will determine if its distribution model is thought out or copy pasted from DOGEcoin’s whitepaper. A gaming token that sold too much to seed investors? Prepare to fall down an escalator if the game doesn’t have enough players. A governance token that’s mostly held by founders or a DAO? Don’t expect your vote on proposals to be impactful. Consider if the distribution matches its use-case for long term success. And if you’re unsure, compare its model to one of a similar token.

Anon team: While it’s common in crypto for teams to protect their anonymity, this lack of transparency is also a risk that needs to be weighed carefully, as it opens investors up to new risks like rug pulls and just blatant scams. 

Remember

Crypto is about educating yourself and being your own bank. This means due diligence is paramount if you want to succeed as an investor or a founder.  

Let us know your thoughts! Sign up for a Mindplex account now, join our Telegram, or follow us on Twitter.