Artist and the Machine Announces May 2026 New York Summit Following Groundbreaking Los Angeles Event
400 cross-disciplinary leaders gathered in LA to explore AI’s impact on creativity, culture, and human connection; registration now open for NYC edition
NEW YORK – November 21, 2025 – Following the success of its November Los Angeles summit, Artist and the Machine has announced that its next gathering will take place on May 14, 2026, in New York City. The bi-annual event, which has been established as the premier convening for decision-makers at the intersection of creativity and artificial intelligence, brought together handpicked leaders from Fortune 500 companies, major studios, and pioneering creative enterprises at The Preserve in Hollywood.
The LA summit featured executives and innovators from Mattel, Coca-Cola, AWS, Cosm, Adobe, Lovable, alongside Emmy-winning filmmakers, visual artists, and AI pioneers like Grimes and Shantell Martin. The event sparked critical conversations about how AI is reshaping not just creative production, but the very nature of meaning, authorship, and human expression in the digital age.
Three Defining Themes Emerged from the Summit
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- Creativity at the “Speed of Culture”: Artists highlighted AI’s role in enabling unprecedented creative velocity. Emmy-winning filmmaker Jason Zada produced a music video with will.i.am in three days that gained 30M+ views in a week, noting, “For the first time, we could move at the speed of culture.” Visual artist Shantell Martin noted that AI systems allow her to circumnavigate traditional linear workflows and explore creative directions simultaneously. Mindaugas Petrutis, Creator Lead at Lovable, summarized the democratizing potential: “Only 1% of people in the world can code, but 99% of us have great ideas, and AI tools are finally empowering that 99% to create things themselves.”
- The Human Fingerprint – Intentionality Over Output: As AI raises baseline production quality, speakers emphasized that human choice has never been more crucial. Matt Zien articulated what he calls the emerging “meaning economy”: Artist and musician Grimes called for “approaching it with moral philosophy” as artists navigate new tools, while Christopher Sinnott, Spatial Computing and Immersive Technology at AWS, observed: “The best of AI has human fingerprints all over it.”
- Design Thinking: Building New Worlds: Summit speakers outlined a blueprint for creative leadership in the AI era that emphasizes building over consuming tools. Dom Heinrich, Global Head of AI Design at The Coca-Cola Company, and other speakers championed purposeful expansion of cognitive scope to shape new cultural experiences. The focus shifted from mastering specific platforms to cultivating a builder mentality, asking not “how do I use this tool?” but “what do I want to build, and what will allow me to do that?”
“We are at an urgent moment when AI is profoundly impacting our self-perception as humans, leaders, and creators,” said Dani Van de Sande, Founder of Artist and the Machine. “The LA summit proved that when you bring innovators across disciplines into the same room for human-centric, creative-first dialogue, you unlock insights that go far beyond efficiency narratives. We’re excited to continue this conversation in New York.”
“At Lovable, we’re trying to make software creation feel as natural as picking up a pen or a brush,” said Mindaugas Petrutis, Creator Lead at Lovable. “For years, there’s been this idea that physical art and technology live in separate worlds, and that AI threatens what artists do. What we’re seeing here is the opposite. Lovable gives artists a way to extend their work into new spaces, without losing the soul of what makes it theirs. Watching Shantell M and Moral Turgeman bring a piece they’ve been dreaming about for a decade into an interactive, living environment has been incredible. What we wanted to show with this collaboration is possibility, that artists can use tools like Lovable to expand their practice, invite people into the work, and feel empowered rather than replaced.”
New York Summit: May 14, 2026
The May 2026 New York summit will build on the momentum from Los Angeles, convening another carefully curated group of creative leaders, technology innovators, and brand executives to explore the evolving relationship between human creativity and machine intelligence.
For more information about Artist and the Machine and to apply for attendance, visit https://artistandthemachine.com/
About Artist and the Machine
Artist and the Machine is the leading Summit at the forefront of AI & Creativity. The bi-yearly gathering in LA & NY is known for its elevated, thoughtful curation that fosters inspiration and partnerships across creative innovation leaders, artists, and founders pioneering the future of creative Human-Machine collaboration. The LA AI & Creativity Summit on November 19, 2025 at The Preserve Hollywood gathered 300+ handpicked leaders in the space, featuring a Main Stage, bespoke breakout sessions & workshops, and interactive demos. If you’re exploring how AI is transforming creative work – you’ll want to be in this room.
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.