{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"State of Play","title":"Escha Vera: She Trained Her Own AI to Make Art.","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3346,"description":"Escha Vera got death threats for posting AI art. She kept posting anyway.\nPerplexity's designer runs a record label, trained her own LoRAs, and built the Comet invitations that broke the internet — each one unique, generated at scale, but deeply intentional.\nWe talk about the hate, the ethics, and why prompting isn't a gimmick skill, but communication.\nGet the UX Tools Newsletter (written by me)\nJoin 100,000+ designers for weekly insights on creative software and the people shaping it: [https://uxtools.co](https://uxtools.co/)\nCHAPTERS:\n00:00 - \"I can't post anything without death threats\"\n01:48 - How I found Escha's work\n02:46 - Myspace and Neopets taught her to code\n04:39 - Losing self-expression in client work\n06:54 - \"I call myself a designer and don't elaborate\"\n08:05 - Perplexity's culture: high trust, high autonomy\n09:13 - \"There's no roadmap, just do it\"\n11:53 - How the Comet invitations actually got made\n14:51 - Scaling unique outputs to 10K+ generations\n17:44 - Evaluating AI tools as inputs vs outputs\n20:16 - Pushing Midjourney to break terms of service\n21:35 - \"Being a good designer is about communication\"\n24:22 - Trial and error prompting with Comet\n26:22 - Prompting as a second-class citizen to features\n30:48 - \"Can you be pro AI and pro self-expression?\"\n36:13 - The ethics question that kept her at Descript\n38:35 - The hate and vitriol from sharing AI work\n40:51 - \"Ask how it was made before throwing hate\"\n43:31 - The blurred line: how much of it is AI?\n45:31 - Should we disclose AI in our work?\n48:40 - Daily driving tools at Perplexity\n50:37 - The spinning planet she shipped in 5 minutes\nABOUT TOMMY GEOCO\nI spent 15+ years in tech and design. Former military. Father of five. Now building Internet Enjoyers, a weird little media + product studio rediscovering soul in creative tech. This show is how I'm rediscovering my love for the game.\nABOUT STATE OF PLAY\nHost Tommy Geoco discovers what fuels the internet's most interesting designers and builders....","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/Q4goNjMCyLVJblsVd-hc65Y9xpTGIkbjq5L00Huluhg/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9kZTM4/NTdjYjhlYmI5NzU0/YjRlNDNkMjFiNDgy/NTRhNi5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}