In an era when artificial intelligence thinks and creates in place of humans, what role remains uniquely human, and uniquely artistic? As technology rapidly reshapes daily life and social order, an international forum in Seoul will revisit the meaning of art and of being human.
The Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture said on the 22nd that it will host the 2026 Seoul International Arts Forum, or SAFT, on Nov. 17 at Art Hall 2 of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul. Now in its second year, the forum will bring together 12 experts from Korea and abroad in fields including AI, art, philosophy, literature and urban cultural policy, under the theme "Unfamiliar Intelligence and New Intellect: Designing the Age of Humans, Again."
The program is divided into three sessions built around the themes of humans, art and the city. The first, "Before an Unfamiliar Intelligence: Asking Again Where Humans Stand," will examine what human thought and judgment mean as machine intelligence advances. Speakers include Daniel Lee, a professor at Cornell University who previously led global AI at Samsung Research; Kim Sang-hyun, a professor at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study whose work has helped improve AI's mathematical reasoning; and artist Lawrence Lek, named to Time magazine's 2024 TIME100 AI list.
The second session, "Between Humans and AI: Art That Opens a New Intellect," will explore the value of art in an age of AI-assisted creation, viewed through human experience, sensation and imagination. Participants include science fiction writer Cheon Seon-ran, known for the novel "A Thousand Blues"; philosopher Nicolai Pedersen, a professor at Yonsei University; and media artist Trevor Paglen, winner of the 2026 LG Guggenheim Award. The session will take up the distinctive experiences and the power of questioning that technology cannot easily replace.
The final session, "Art and the City: New Ways of Being Together," will focus on how art connects people and builds community. Polish director Łukasz Twarkowski, Glyn Roberts, chief executive of Festival City Adelaide in Australia, and Eva Soria Puig, director of culture for the city of Barcelona in Spain, will consider the possibilities of future cities from the perspectives of performance, festivals and urban cultural policy.
The forum's agenda was drawn from discussions with about 40 experts and from 53 topics proposed by citizens in six countries. Media artist Lee Jin-joon, head of the Art & Technology Center at KAIST, will serve as the overall host.
"I hope that intellects from different fields will come together so that Seoul becomes a place that sends out future agendas and leads global discourse through art," said Song Hyung-jong, chief executive of the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture.