Can a machine make art? Can it feel inspiration—or does it just predict the next pixel? In this event, we’ll explore what happens when creativity meets code, and whether artificial intelligence can truly be considered an artist.

We’ll unpack how AI systems generate art and writing, including the mechanics behind transformers, diffusion models, and the emerging theory that creativity itself might be driven by compression progress, an idea championed by researcher Jürgen Schmidhuber.

Then we’ll shift to deeper philosophical questions: Is creativity just clever pattern recognition? What does authorship mean when machines can produce at scale? And if art is about communication, does it matter whether the creator has a mind?

Discussion topics may include:
• Schmidhuber’s compression theory and AI creativity
• How modern models generate language and images
• Co-creation between humans and machines
• Originality, intention, and authorship in machine-generated works
• Is AI reflecting us—or becoming something else?

Optional reflection prompts:
• Have you ever seen AI-generated art that felt genuinely moving?
• Where do you draw the line between style and soul?

New York Artificial Intelligence Meetup Group

Tone

Tammy Lux

Martial Terran

Patti Howell

Balazs Nyiro

Viktoria VS

Andrea

mike sorn

Elena

Vedang M

Waleed Sha

Carlos Cortez

michelle

AI and the Nature of Art: Compression, Creation, and the Machine Muse

Online event

What do a Roman emperor and an Indian prince, living worlds apart, have to teach us today?
Marcus Aurelius ruled an empire, yet turned inward through Stoic reflection. Siddhartha Gautama left behind a kingdom to seek liberation from suffering. Though born in different times and cultures, their paths reveal a shared commitment to clarity, compassion, and inner discipline.

In this conversation, we’ll explore:

* How Stoicism and Buddhism each approach suffering, selfhood, and control
* The political and cultural contexts that shaped their thinking
* Practices both traditions offer for navigating modern life
* Points of overlap and divergence—and what they reveal about East and West

Optional reflection prompt:
Which path speaks more to your present moment—the disciplined duty of the king, or the renunciation of the prince?

Culture, AI, Science, and the Human Experience (CASHE)

Jody S.

Jack

Justin 

Arielle M.

Ludmila Chentsova

Mario

Shereen Mahtani

Anthony DiFranco

Howard S.

Ronald D'Alleva

Gennadiy

Anderson Laventure

Imelda

Brittany Birchfield

The Philosopher King and the Enlightened Prince: Stoicism and Buddhism

Join members from both CASHE and NY AI, in a single event, for an open-format discussion on some of the most pressing and profound questions of our time. This won’t be a formal presentation—just a thoughtful gathering of minds exploring ideas that matter.

From chatbots to UFOs, we’re surrounded by speculation about minds we don’t understand. But what does it mean to call something a “mind” at all—especially when it didn’t evolve the way we did?

In this open discussion session, we’ll explore the kinds of psychology—real or imagined—that people attribute to artificial and extraterrestrial intelligence. How do we judge what counts as intelligent, agentic, or moral when we’re dealing with something that may not think, feel, or reason the way we do?

Could the AI alignment problem be just one version of a broader challenge—the challenge of coexisting with non-human minds? And if so, are we using the right frameworks to think about alien intelligence, or are we just projecting our own assumptions?

We’ll consider questions like:

* Would we even recognize a non-human mind if we encountered one?
* Are we more afraid of minds that are too different from ours, or ones that are too similar?
* Is it possible to build empathy or alignment with something that doesn’t share our biology, emotions, or evolutionary history?
* Could AI safety and alien contact be part of the same deeper problem: how to think about minds that don’t think like us?

This won’t be a lecture. I’ll offer a brief intro and framing, and then we’ll open it up for freeform discussion. Bring your questions, your theories, your sci-fi references, and your curiosity.

CASHE X NY AI: AI & Alien Minds—Thinking About Minds That Don’t Think Like Ours

🧬 Part 1: How Fragments Become Biological and Cultural Agents
A Deep Dive in the “Fragments to Agents” Series

This is the first in a multi-part series exploring a central question at the heart of life, intelligence, and emergence:
How do fragments become agents?

In this session, we’ll focus on the biological and cultural dimensions of this transformation. We’ll look at how molecules become metabolism, how cells become selves, and how stories, tools, and shared meaning shape the emergence of social agents, institutions, and cultures.

We’ll explore questions like:

* What makes a system biologically autonomous rather than just chemically reactive?
* How do genes, bodies, and environments co-create adaptive behavior?
* How do symbolic systems like language and myth turn individuals into cultural agents?
* How do companies, economies, and markets emerge from scattered fragments of human activity and exchange?

We’ll draw from the work of Darwin, Terrence Deacon, Adam Smith, Nassim Taleb, and others—blending insights from biology, anthropology, and economics to better understand how agency arises and evolves.

This event is open to all groups, but the core emphasis will be on themes most relevant to our biology and culture-focused members.
Future sessions will explore computational, technological, and philosophical dimensions—especially AI and optimization theory—through other group lenses.

Format:

* Substantial presentation
* Deep open discussion
* Optional shared resources to explore further

Whether you’re into systems theory, evolution, social dynamics, or simply curious—this session offers both structure and space to think deeply about one of the most fundamental transformations in nature and society.

The Generative Artificial Intelligence Network

🧬 Part 1: How Fragments Become Biological and Cultural Agents

From Fragments to Agents: A Scenario-Based Discussion on the Emergence of Agency

This is not a lecture. Our Friday joint session brings together 4 of our main groups for a lightly guided, open-format discussion. We’ll kick off with a brief intro and framing, then move into a scenario-based exploration of a central question:

How do fragments become agents?
How does optimization give rise to systems that strive—to survive, to grow, to persist?

Each group will be exploring this theme in more depth over the coming weeks through talks and rich content pages, which will be shared via web links for those who’d like to dive deeper.

But this session is something different.

We’ll be using a set of thought-provoking scenarios—designed as intuition pumps—to explore how agency arises in biology, technology, business, and beyond.

Preview scenarios might include:

* A single-celled organism adapting to hostile terrain—what makes it more than just a chemical reaction?
* A language model learning to game its training metrics—has it become an optimizer in its own right?
* A startup that pivots repeatedly in search of product-market fit—who or what is the agent navigating survival here?

Bring your own:
Participants are encouraged to come up with their own short scenarios or thought experiments on how fragments become agents. You can post them in the comments ahead of time or bring them into the session live.

No prep needed—just curiosity, and a willingness to think deeply.
Some of the concepts we’ll explore are often taken for granted or left underexamined, but they deserve more. In conversations like these, curiosity often matters more than prior knowledge.

CASHExNYAIxAIWSNYxGAIN:From Fragments To Agents - Scenarios Discussion

Culture AI Science and the Human Experience (CASHE)

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Culture AI Science and the Human Experience (CASHE)

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