Can AI ignite creativity or suppress it? Join us to explore how generative AI is reshaping design, education, and the future of making.
Can artificial intelligence enhance creativity, or does it hold it back? As generative AI tools become increasingly common, they raise questions: Does creativity flourish within constraints, or is AI’s probabilistic predictability stifling innovation? Can AI foster creativity by emulating and iterating, or does it risk making creators complacent? And what happens to learning through making when the “making” is outsourced?
Cliff Kuang, Lauren Vriens, Maheen Sohail, Quardean Lewis-Allen, and moderator Olga Geletina, will explore the intersection of creativity and AI, from questions of taste and emotional intelligence to the societal impact of AI on education and the future of design. Together, we’ll examine the complexities of this evolving landscape—not to provide definitive answers, but to uncover deeper questions and spark new perspectives.
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Event Series: Fresh Dialogue
These events are critical discussions that focus on current events, personal experiences, issues of cultural relevance, and emerging topics in the world of design.
Tickets
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Schedule
- 6:30 pm Doors open & check-in
- 7:00 pm Event begins
- 8:00 am Event ends
Tickets
- Non-members$25.00
- AIGA Members$15.00
Panel
Cliff Kuang
Cliff is a Sr Staff Designer at Google, where he helps lead Pixel’s AI innovation efforts as both a designer and strategist. He is also the author of User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play, which the New York Times called “a tour de force.” Published in over 12 languages, it is taught in several universities around the world. Currently, he’s writing a sequel, focused on designing feedback loops.
Previously, he was head of UX and product at Fast Company; the founder of Fast Company’s design site, Co.Design; and an editor at Wired. Under his leadership, Co.Design won several accolades, including a National Magazine Award.
Lauren Vriens
Lauren is an AI startup advisor and entrepreneur focused on redefining go-to-market strategies in the AI era. Formerly a VP at Accenture, she helped Fortune 500 companies uncover new growth opportunities and built AI products that generated $70M in deal pipeline. As General Manager of the startup Revel, she drove growth to $50M in revenue in 1.5 years. As a LinkedIn creator, her videos on AI garnered over 20M impressions in 90 days.
Maheen Sohail
Maheen is a Lead Product Designer with a focus on creating 0-1 innovative products. Her work encompasses various emerging technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality. Currently, she leads design on the Generative AI team at Meta. Maheen is passionate about diversity and making emerging tech accessible. She is also a teacher, helping designers across the world become AI Product Designers through her online courses. In her free time, you’ll find Maheen surfing or experimenting with different storytelling techniques, such as film, audio, and AI art.
Quardean Lewis-Allen
Quardean is the Founder and Executive Director of the award-winning non-profit youth-led design agency and creative lab, Youth Design Center, which provides a gateway for young people in his native Brownsville community and across NYC to access mentorship to tackle underrepresentation in S.T.E.A.M. professions, close the racial wealth gap and address the need for place-based community revitalization. He has over a decade of interdisciplinary design experience working across public and private sectors at the intersection of tactical urbanism and social activism through community-led design. Youth Design Center has been featured in the NYTimes, Fast Company, Buzzfeed, and Forbes and was recently awarded the $100,000 Brooklyn Org Spark Prize.
Quardean has been an Adjunct Lecturer at City College of New York and NYU Tisch ITP where he was also a Human-In-Residence Fellow. He serves on several Boards, is listed in Crain’s Under 40 and Forbes Under 30, and is an Echoing Green Black Male Achievement Fellow, amongst other accomplishments. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from SUNY Buffalo and a Masters in Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Moderator
