Can artistes stay ahead of the algorithm?
At CultureCon 2026, industry experts debated the impact of AI on human creativity and artistic originality. The discussion explored whether AI's ability to aggregate existing data threatens the human impulse to create things that have never been seen before.
Why it matters
As AI tools become more accessible, the creative industry is grappling with fundamental questions about the value of human labor and the definition of art.
Conversations drifted through the space, mingling with the aroma of coffee and the hum of people moving between sessions. Inside the auditorium, attendees listened and debated, while outside, discussions spilled into the cafeteria and corridors. This was CultureCon 2026 at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA). The networking mixer brought together artistes and cultural practitioners. We caught up with Sanjoy Roy, Roshan Abbas, Karsh Kale and Jishnu Dasgupta to ask: what happens to creativity when technology changes the very act of creating?
Ironically, patchy network connectivity offered an unexpected break from phones, drawing attention back to the stage. And the conversation there centred on a question that is becoming increasingly difficult for the creative world to ignore: when AI can generate images, music, text and video with increasing ease, what happens to originality, artistic labour and the human impulse to create?
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