*New* Artist and the Machine Podcast Episode
Theme
Some of the most interesting AI work is happening when creators crack open the understanding of software and treat it as a medium to think through. Don Allen Stevenson III and Ceej Vega have been two of the clearest examples of this shift, using new tools to move from instinct to image, character, world, and interaction without waiting for the traditional production chain to catch up. This goes beyond efficiency, shipping faster, and leaning out necessary resources. Put in the right hands, it offers creative people a working surface for ideas that used to stay trapped in decks, sketches, and notes.
Signal
This shift made Replit’s Vibe Creation Showcase feel especially relevant in the Human Lounge at our AI & Creativity Summit in NY. When artists, designers, filmmakers, and founders can build a working prototype themselves, the earliest version of an idea becomes much more alive. You can test the mechanics, feel the interface, watch where people get confused, and find the parts that have charge. This changes the creative process from explaining the thing to encountering it. The concept becomes something people can click, break, share, remix, and respond to. For creative work, that is a meaningful shift. The prototype is no longer just a step toward production. It becomes part of how the idea discovers itself.
Podcast
In this Artist and the Machine podcast episode, guests Ceej Vega and Don Allen Stevenson III get into AI as a new creative stack, from Ceej’s entrance to creativity through Tumblr to explaining AI in NBA terms, and building full production worlds with voice, agents, Blender, and taste.
Paris
A few days ago in Paris, the ideas explored above became more tactical at CRAFTED, an intimate 200-person gathering by Benjamin Benichou supported by Artist and the Machine. Across two sessions, Sybille de Saint Louvent and Bastien Baumann showed how AI can relieve production pressure without replacing story, restraint, craft, or the human magic that bring ideas to life. We left feeling all the more inspired to continue exploring the frontier of what happens when artist and machine converge.
Pulse
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Interested in joining the Artist and the Machine team? We are hiring for two roles: A Summit Producer and Designer.
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AI Startup Midjourney Pivots to Health With Ultrasound Machine.
If you’re creating something aligned with Artist and the Machine or you’d like to recommend work shaping this space, we’d love to see it for the chance to be featured. Reach out to us at community@artistandthemachine.com.
Til next time,
Artist and the Machine.
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Paige Piskin is an award-winning AI and XR creator, known for pushing the boundaries of digital makeup, character design, and augmented reality experiences. With AR effects generating more than 300 billion impressions, shared 2 billion times, Paige has worked with major brands like Netflix, Bratz, Warner, and Coldplay, bringing immersive storytelling to life. She has also been a guest judge for Netflix, consultant, and 2x hackathon winner, recognized for her innovative work in AI-driven AR experiences. Paige is passionate about blending generative AI with character design, expanding the possibilities of digital self-expression and interactive storytelling.
Claire Silver is an anonymous AI-Collaborative artist that works with oil, acrylic, collage, photography, and different digital mediums to create her work. She often blends the classical style and mythos into her art, collaboratively producing work that feels at once familiar and strange. Her work explores themes of innocence, trauma, the hero’s journey, and how our view of them will change in an increasingly transhumanist future. Claire’s art can be found in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, has been at Sotheby’s London and Christie’s New York and in galleries, museums, and festivals all over the world. Featured in the New York Times, WIRED, Fortune, NPR, and countless podcasts, Claire takes every opportunity to explore her unending fascination with AI, fight for visibility for this budding art movement, and wonder at the magnitude of this moment in history. She often feels like a caveman painting fire. Claire is vocal in her belief that with the rise of AI, for the first time, the barrier of skill is swept away and that in this evolving era, taste is the new skill.