How to Defend Human Imagination in the AI Era — International Arts and Culture Forum Convenes at the United Nations Headquarters

The United Nations is an important platform where the world’s languages converge and internationalconsensus is forged. On the afternoon of July 23 local time, however, an art forum held at UnitedNations Headquarters in New York turned its attention to what language itself cannot fully contain:memory, emotion, intuition, play, and the uniquely human power of imagination.

The International Academy for Arts and Cultural Studies (IAA) actively supports the relevant areas ofwork of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It has longbeen committed to art education and cultural diplomacy, promoting cultural diversity, safeguardinghuman creativity, and advocating a human-centered approach to the development of artificialintelligence.

Against this backdrop, the forum, an extension of the United Nations cultural diplomacy celebrationseries jointly organized by IAA and UNESCO, was hosted by the United Nations CorrespondentsAssociation (UNCA) and held at United Nations Headquarters. The forum also received support frominstitutions of higher education including the Consortium for Diplomacy and Global Action at TeachersCollege, Columbia University. The Art Forum: ‘Human After AI: In Defence of Human Imagination’aimed to further advance international dialogue in the fields of art and ideas.

Artists, educators, designers, leaders of cultural institutions, and representatives from the technologysector from China, the United States, Spain, South Korea, and other countries and regions gathered toexplore a shared question: when artificial intelligence can write, paint, compose, and design—and canlearn, imitate, and generate content at unprecedented speed—what abilities make human beings trulyirreplaceable?

When Artificial Intelligence Begins to Create, What Makes Humans Irreplaceable?

The forum was moderated by Jorge Soto, Music Director of the United Nations Festival Orchestra forHope and Assistant Director of the International Academy for Arts and Cultural Studies. In his openingremarks, H.E. Marco A. Suazo, Ambassador and President of the International Academy for Arts andCultural Studies, stated that the development of artificial intelligence has moved beyond meretechnological progress to become a major issue concerning the future of culture, education, andcivilization. The question truly worth considering is not how intelligent artificial intelligence will become,but whether human beings can continue to shoulder the responsibility of giving technology its values,ethics, and direction of development. He noted that imagination is rooted in emotion, memory, empathy,and ethical judgment. It is not only an important source of artistic creation, but also an important publicresource through which human society determines the direction of its future.

During the forum, several internationally renowned experts delivered keynote speeches on humancreativity, cultural inheritance, and artistic innovation in the age of artificial intelligence.

Prof. Lu Xiaobo, Director of the Tsinghua University Art Museum, Senior Professor of Liberal Arts atTsinghua University, and Vice Chairman of the Ninth Council of the China Artists Association, delivereda keynote speech titled “Safeguarding Human Imagination: Artistic Responsibility and the EducationalMission in the Intelligent Age.” He proposed: “Computational power is not imagination, and generationdoes not mean creation.” Artificial intelligence can identify patterns and reorganize knowledge, but itcannot truly create a future that does not yet exist. Imagination is not only an ability of artists; it ishumanity’s spiritual organ for facing the future. Education must not only impart knowledge, but shouldalso cultivate perception, critical thinking, ethical judgment, interdisciplinary innovation, and respect forcultural differences, enabling art to become an important force in safeguarding the spirit of freedom,design to become a method connecting imagination with reality, and technology to become a new toolfor expanding creativity.

Prof. Wang Jiansong, tenured professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Environmental ArtDesign at the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, then delivered a speech titled “TellingChina’s Stories Well Through Algorithmic Design: Re-creating China’s Traditional Human SettlementCulture in the Intelligent Age.” Drawing on cultural heritage preservation practices involving Gulangyu,Beijing’s traditional neighborhoods, the Jingxi Ancient Road, the Silk Road, and the Classic ofMountains and Seas, he explored the boundaries of artificial intelligence’s participation in thecommunication and preservation of China’s fine traditional culture. He pointed out that cultural heritageconsists not only of buildings, neighborhoods, and historic landscapes, but also carries ways of life,labor experience, regional climate, and collective memory. If culture is simply transformed intosearchable and reproducible data and symbols, it may lose its true vitality. He proposed building newpathways for AI-enabled cultural inheritance across multiple dimensions, including value, standards,strategy, methods, and industry, so that computing power truly serves the inheritance of civilizationrather than diminishing the richness of culture.

In a speech titled “Artificial Intelligence Will Not Replace Us: It Redefines Us,” Prof. José Félix BentzOliver, President of the Royal Spanish Academy of Arts, stated that, looking back through art history,every technological revolution has prompted discussion about the future of art. When photography firstappeared, it too was believed to herald the end of painting; the opposite proved true, as it encouragedartists to move beyond reproducing the objective world and propelled modern art into a new stage ofdevelopment. He believes that artificial intelligence may be bringing about a similar but even more farreaching transformation. In a future filled with vast quantities of generated images, text, and music, thevalue of artists will increasingly lie in intention, selection, interpretation, and the construction of meaning.“Machines can generate content, but it is always human beings who truly give a work meaning.”

In a speech titled “Exploring the Five Senses: Human Connection Amid the Rapid Development ofArtificial Intelligence,” Prof. Ann-Marie Caroline Richard, Director Emerita of Sotheby’s Institute of Art,explored the importance of human sensory experience in the digital age from the perspectives of artappreciation and cultural heritage preservation. She noted that high-resolution images can reproduce awork’s colors, forms, and details, but cannot reproduce the material, temperature, traces of time, andemotional resonance experienced by a viewer standing before the original. Genuine art appreciationrelies not only on technical data, but also on human sight, hearing, touch, accumulated experience, andprofessional judgment formed over time. Digital technology can reproduce an image, but it cannotreproduce the real and unique encounter between a person and a work of art.Vicki Ann Hansen, Chair of the Schengen Peace Foundation, shared her views on “Peace Is Built fromthe Ground Up,” emphasizing that peace is not an abstract idea, but a social practice that graduallytakes shape through the continuous building of trust, understanding, and cooperation among people.

Sarah Takagi, former Chair of the Music Department at Wellesley College, spoke on “The Process ofPlay: A Source of Human Imagination Beyond Artificial Intelligence.” She argued that the spirit of play isnot an escape from reality, but an important source of creativity. Open-ended exploration, continualexperimentation, and permission to fail allow human beings to repeatedly break through the boundariesof existing experience and thought—precisely the creative mechanism that artificial intelligence findsdifficult to reproduce.

Award-winning film director and actress Yana Gladkikh, founder of the AUTEUR School of Film, spokeon “What Artificial Intelligence Cannot Imagine: The Art of the Unknown.” Using filmmaking as anexample, she pointed out that genuine art is often born from the unknown. Outstanding works do notemerge from existing answers, but gradually take shape through continual exploration, revision, anddiscovery. The ability to remain open in the face of the unknown is the most precious quality in artisticcreation, and a source of human creativity that artificial intelligence currently finds difficult to replace.

From Algorithmic Ethics to the Cultural Future: Four Roundtables Opena Multidimensional DialogueFour

international roundtables held in the afternoon carried the discussion further into practical issuesconcerning cultural development, artistic innovation, and international cooperation in the age of artificialintelligence.

The first panel, themed “Algorithmic Power, Cultural Diversity, and Ethical Responsibility,” wasmoderated by Xie Qihong of Tsinghua University. Liu Jinjing, associate professor at Guangxi NormalUniversity and head of its Institute of Industrial Design; Wang Yilin, a doctoral candidate at theAcademy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University; Han Boqi, a PhD from the Central Academy of FineArts; and Ma Xiaoxi, Executive Director of Shanghai Xixun Jewelry Trading Co., Ltd., discussed theprotection of cultural diversity, original design, creative ethics, and the innovative inheritance ofintangible cultural heritage in the context of generative artificial intelligence. The experts at the forumbelieved that algorithms are becoming an “invisible editorial force,” influencing the dissemination,selection, and presentation of cultural content. Cultural diversity should not remain merely a concept atthe level of cultural display; it should become an important value foundation for AI algorithm design,data governance, and content dissemination mechanisms.

The second panel, themed “The Irreplaceable Qualities of Human Imagination,” was moderated by MaLijun, Assistant Professor at Lingnan University. Zhang Weiming, Chief Editor of Industrial DesignMagazine; Liu Tianhua, lecturer at the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University; Wen Jinbei,professor at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies; and artist Chun Wei Shi exchanged views onmemory, language, handcraft, intuition, empathy, and other topics. The participants believed that trueoriginality is not simply the pursuit of novelty, but a creative process that transforms accumulated lifeexperience, cultural memory, and humanistic concern into something capable of resonating with others.

The third panel, themed “Education, Cities, and Cultural Institutions for a Human-Centered Future,” wasmoderated by Liu Tianhua, lecturer at the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University. Xie Qihongof Tsinghua University; Ren Qingdong, lecturer at the Central Academy of Fine Arts; Dong Jun,manager of Crossing Art Gallery and independent curator; and artist and independent curator Hu Weiexchanged views on educational innovation, urban cultural development, museum development, andthe transformation of cultural institutions in the context of artificial intelligence. The participants believedthat after artificial intelligence enters education, cities, and public cultural spaces, social progressshould be measured not only by efficiency, but also by attention to human agency, public participation,and the continued development of cultural diversity.

The fourth panel, themed “From Principles to Action: Institutional Cooperation and Future Pathways,”was moderated by Liu Jinjing, associate professor at Guangxi Normal University and head of itsInstitute of Industrial Design. SUH Chang Hwan, Chief Executive Officer of BSA Office; Lu Di, ChiefExecutive Officer of Hong Kong Guofu Quantum Art Co., Ltd.; Ma Lijun, Assistant Professor at LingnanUniversity; Tse Hey E, Chief Executive Officer of San Hey Fan Arts and Culture Development Co., Ltd.;and Sonia Hu, Director of Curatorial and Academic Research at the Memor Museum, held an in-depthdiscussion on art, technology, education, curatorial research, and mechanisms for internationalcooperation. The participants unanimously agreed that advancing ethical development in the age ofartificial intelligence requires more than advocacy of principles: through international cooperation, jointresearch, public participation, and inter-institutional collaboration, cultural responsibility must betransformed into long-term, sustainable mechanisms for action.

Safeguarding Human Imagination Means Safeguarding Our Shared Future

At the conclusion of the forum, Ambassador Marco A. Suazo and Prof. Lu Xiaobo once again echoed itstheme. The experts agreed that the forum did not advocate avoiding the development of artificialintelligence, but emphasized the need to promote the coordinated development of technologicalinnovation and the humanistic spirit with a more open and rational attitude. Artificial intelligence cancontinuously generate new content and forms, but the responsibility for truly giving them meaning, value,and direction will always belong to humanity. Safeguarding human imagination concerns not onlyartistic creation, but also cultural inheritance, the continuation of civilization, and the direction ofhumanity’s future development.

Using United Nations Headquarters as its platform, the forum brought together artists, educators,designers, leaders of cultural institutions, and representatives from the technology sector from multiplecountries and regions for in-depth exchanges on human imagination, cultural diversity, art education,cultural heritage preservation, international cooperation, and other issues in the age of artificialintelligence. The forum held that how to ensure technological innovation and humanistic valuesreinforce one another, so that artificial intelligence truly becomes an important force for improvinghuman well-being and advancing civilization, has become a major question of our time facing theinternational community as a whole. The interdisciplinary and cross-cultural dialogue on this issueoffered new ideas and practical pathways for strengthening international cultural cooperation, promotingexchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, and advancing AI for good, while also contributingthe wisdom of the arts and cultural community to building a more inclusive and sustainable humanfuture.

Today, as artificial intelligence continues to expand technological boundaries, how to safeguardhumanity’s unique imagination, creativity, and cultural spirit is becoming a major question for the globalarts community, education community, and international society as a whole.

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