2025.Jun.24

REPORTS

Report on CulturIA & B’AI Symposium 2025 “AI and Art”

On June 18 and 19, 2025, CulturIA & B’AI Symposium “AI and Art”  was held at the Ito International Research Center, the University of Tokyo. CulturIA is an interdisciplinary project to offer a cultural approach to artificial intelligence, co-managed by Sorbonne Nouvelle University, the Centre Internet et Société, and Inria and funded by the French National Research Agency (CNRS). B’AI Global Forum is a research initiative to think about gender and minorities along with their relationship with information technology in the AI era, launched within the Institute for AI and Beyond at the University of Tokyo.

In the opening remarks, Professor Masami Hagiya, Director of the Institute for AI and Beyond and Senior Professor at the University of Tokyo, introduced the Beyond AI joint project between the University of Tokyo and SoftBank, and the particular mission and achievements of the B’AI Global Forum within this larger project.

The first session of the symposium on “AI, Art, and Ethics”, moderated by Minjoo Lee (Project Assistant Professor at the B’AI Global Forum) featured three presentations. Hiromi Matsui (Associate Professor at UTokyo) explored the potential intersections and fundamental distinctions between the surrealism art movement and AI technology. Pauline Hachette (Associate Researcher at Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis) discussed the politics of digital technologies in Alain Damasio’s science fiction novels, depicting technocapitalist societies of control and questioning the art of living within such societies. Alexandre Gefen (Full Research Professor at the CNRS Thalim) drew examples from the exhibition The World Through AI at the Musée du Jeu de Paume he co-curated to display how contemporary artists working with or around AI explore original collaboration methods and reflect on the different issues of AI.

The second session on “AI, Memory, and Cultural Imagination” was moderated by Carla Marand (PhD Candidate at Sciences Po). Sunjin Oh (Project Assistant Professor at the B’AI Global Forum) explored the intersection of nostalgia-driven AI applications and Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of Retrotopia, which critiques the societal tendency to idealize the past as a means of escaping present uncertainties. Ada Ackerman (Permanent Researcher at the CNRS Thalim) presented on the use of AI, notably in archeology, to produce uncanny artifacts which could but did not exist, sketching out a synthetic history endowed with poetic and speculative qualities. Marida Di Crosta (Professor at Jean Moulin Lyon 3 University) presented about Boid Corner, an installation she created that turns visitors’ hands into virtual wings/birds while visualising and extrapolating data and information. Finally, Osamu Sakura (Professor at Jissen Women’s University) presented on the concept of Social Shaping of Technology (SST) in the specific context of AI in/for everyday life in Japan. 

On June 19, 2025, the second day of the CulturIA & B’AI Symposium at the University of Tokyo continued at the Ito International Research Center. Following the previous day’s sessions on art, ethics, memory, and imagination, the discussions on Day 2 focused on language, posthumanism, gender, and aesthetic perception in the context of AI. 

The third session, “AI, Language, and Posthumanism,” moderated by Yuko Itatsu (Professor at the University of Tokyo), featured three presentations. Xinqi He (Assistant Professor, Rikkyo University) examined how nonsense in poetic language can be reinterpreted as a source of creative expression within large language models. Grant Jun Otsuki (Associate Professor, University of Tokyo) analyzed the concept of AI translation through fiction, highlighting the gap between human interpretation and data-driven processing. Primavera De Filippi (Research Director, CNRS; Faculty Associate, Harvard) explored blockchain-based lifeforms such as Plantoids and Animals, challenging traditional boundaries between life, art, and technology.

The fourth session, “AI, Gender, and Aesthetic Perception,” was moderated by Alexandre Gefen (Full Research Professor, CNRS Thalim). Simon Bréan (Professor, Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle Paris 3) discussed how fictional AI characters are gendered and how this affects human-AI narrative dynamics. Galina Shyndriayeva (Researcher, Musashi University) reflected on the role of AI in perfume creation, comparing it to sensory expertise in medicine. Carla Marand (PhD Candidate, Sciences Po) examined contemporary artworks that use AI to challenge gender norms and expose structural inequalities. Ai Hisano (Associate Professor, University of Tokyo) traced the evolution of virtual aesthetics, framing virtual perception as an ontological space rather than mere simulation.

Spanning two days of rich interdisciplinary dialogue, the CulturIA & B’AI Symposium highlighted how AI is reshaping artistic expression, cultural narratives, sensory practices, and social values. From surrealism to blockchain-based lifeforms, and from gendered AI characters to poetic nonsense in LLMs, the symposium opened up diverse perspectives on the evolving relationship between human creativity and intelligent technologies.