AI x Open Media Forum: Building New Wave Creativity

The AI x Open Media Forum, hosted by the Livepeer Foundation and Refraction during Devconnect Buenos Aires, convened artists, technologists, curators, protocol designers, founders and researchers. The event explored how real-time AI is reshaping media production, distribution, authentication, and economic flows within creative ecosystems.

Rather than traditional panels, the symposium structured participants into focused discussion groups comparing practical experiences with emerging technical capabilities and identifying necessary infrastructure for open media systems.

Methodology and Framing Questions

The Forum centered on foundational questions:

• How does AI reshape authorship and creative labor?
• What compute access means for participation in emerging media forms
• How discovery systems influence cultural production
• What infrastructure supports trust and verifiable media in an AI-saturated environment

Creative Track: New Wave Creativity in the Age of AI

Authorship and "Code"

A Venezuelan 3D artist described personal creative identity as irreducible "code" shaped by lived experience, cultural memory, and environmental context — while AI can emulate aesthetics, it cannot replace cultural grounding. Serpentine Gallery curator Alice Scope contextualized this within art history, noting tool-driven shifts reshape practice but AI's scale introduces new stakes around identity.

Compute Access as Creative Gatekeeper

Multiple Latin American participants identified GPU scarcity and cost as primary limiting factors. Compute access — not talent or tools — emerged as the primary determinant of participation in emerging creative forms.

Discovery Systems and Audience Reach

Creators described tension between algorithmic curation and user agency. The group recognized that discovery systems actively shape cultural evolution rather than remaining neutral.

AI and Creative Labor

Participants avoided simplistic threat-versus-tool framings. AI accelerates exploration but compresses time for deeper development. However, AI also lowers technical barriers and expands imaginative possibility.

Technical Track: Infrastructure for Trust, Agency, and Scale

Provenance as Foundational Infrastructure

Technical discussion emphasized provenance as a multi-layered infrastructure problem. Participants examined device-level signals, cryptographic attestations, model watermarking, social proof, dataset lineage, and content signatures.

The consensus: validator networks incorporating human judgment, machine detection, and stake-based incentives distribute trust across diverse mechanisms.

Interdependent Primitives: Compute, Provenance, and Discovery

Three components emerged as fundamentally interconnected:

• Compute: Enables creation and determines participation
• Provenance: Secures identity and authorship through verifiable histories
• Discovery: Amplifies credible work through community values

Participants explored portable identity models where users control data rather than platforms monetizing it.

Synthesis

When creative and technical tracks were integrated:

• Artists articulated preservation needs: identity, context, agency, creative integrity
• Technologists outlined systems supporting those needs at scale
• Success requires coordination between creative and technical communities

The Forum demonstrated that open media will emerge not from single protocols or organizations, but from communities collaboratively building foundations. Livepeer and Refraction committed to publishing additional Forum materials and supporting teams exploring these concepts.