AI Salon: Creativity & The Machine Condition: Can Machines Truly Create? [London]

​What is creativity and can machines truly express their existence through it?

​Join an intimate gathering of thoughtful minds to explore how AI is reshaping our understanding of creativity, not just in art, but in business, strategy, and problem-solving.

​From composing symphonies and generating artwork to crafting business strategies and writing code, AI systems are stepping into domains once thought to be uniquely human. But when machines perform these acts, are they truly creating or just optimising? Is it imitation, or intention?

​Human creativity often reflects inner life shaped by experience, culture, and life in general. We don’t just engage with the output; we empathise with the creator’s experience. Could something similar apply to machines? Can we interpret AI-generated work through a machine condition its data, architecture, objectives, and limitations, much like we consider the life experience of human creators?

​This salon invites you to reflect on what it really means to create.

​Together, we’ll explore questions like:

• ​What is creativity, and can machines truly express their existence through it?

• ​Is creativity a uniquely human quality or a broader process of emergence, interpretation, and context?

• ​How does AI-generated work challenge our view of creativity in both art and strategy?

• ​Can we relate to AI-generated art by understanding its “machine condition”?

• ​What makes art meaningful, its origin, or our experience of it?

​Come join us to challenge your assumptions, think across disciplines, and reflect on how creativity, once a distinctly human trait, is being redefined in the age of artificial minds.

​
Useful sources:

• ​Key paper for our conversation: On the Machine Condition and its Creative Expression (read here)

• ​Study: Argues that AI can only generate artificial creativity (read here)

• ​Study: Finds that generative AI enhances individual creativity but reduces collective originality (read here)

• ​Tweet: Joanna Maciejewska’s viral tweet on AI and creativity: “I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so I can do art and writing…” and the subsequent discussion (read here)

• ​Article on Velvet Sundown - the first AI music band (read here)

• ​Podcast: Conversation about how AI is reshaping the hosts’ work and the media world more broadly (starts at 25:28) (listen to here)

​

​This is an in-person event. To facilitate smooth and cohesive conversations, please arrive between 6-6:30pm for a prompt discussion start at 6:30pm.

​​----------------------------------------------------------

​​​The Ai Salon is a global community founded in San Francisco focused on intimate, small-sized group discussions on the sociological, economic, cultural, and philosophical impacts and meaning of AI developments. We host small group discussions, all of which you can find on our calendar. You can find summaries of our previous conversations on our substack.

​​​​​​This event is held at IDEALondon – a workspace for early teams and operators in science and tech. Founded by UCL Engineering and managed by WilbeLAB, we're home to London’s most ambitious builders. Learn more about our community, event space, and memberships.

​​📍 Based in Shoreditch (entrance on Wilson Street, turn right in the lobby, through the barrier, and straight ahead.

​Please be advised: Unfortunately, space is very limited at these events and we can not always accept everyone we would like to. We base acceptances based on levels of interest and passion demonstrated in registration question answers. If you are not accepted to this event, please try and come to another!