In this episode I speak with Paola Rocchetti, Co-Founder and Creative Partner at Void ’N Disorder and AI Director at GRAiL. We talk about what pulled her into AI in the first place, why originality is getting harder, and what she thinks will matter most as the tools keep accelerating.

Paola shares how Midjourney sparked her first “wow” moment, why she’s less interested in recreating reality and more interested in new forms of expression.

Key Themes We Explore

• Why she tries to avoid consuming other people’s AI work
• Originality vs copying and why repetition is everywhere
• What it means to be an “AI director”
• Her aesthetic roots: goth culture, anime/manga, avant-garde fashion, and music
• “Flaming in the Wire” and her critique of social media as a kind of religion
• Why “quality” is hard to copy quickly and what quality actually means to her
• How Rome, London, LA, and travel shaped her taste and creative identity
• Why vision matters more as tools improve

Key Takeaways

• AI is most exciting when it helps you discover new expression not recreate reality
• Story is what makes work memorable in a world with no attention span
• Tools will keep improving; what matters is purpose, meaning, and vision behind the work

You can connect with Paola at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paolarocchetti/