We had a diverse mix of really smart people attend our Greenwich Village Bohemian AI Salon event. And luckily, they had strong opinions and curiosity about deeper issues beyond the generic corporate or consumer-level AI discussion.

When we arrived at the venue were were surprised to find another event was happening in the same space at the same bar! But we were able to manage in the upstairs area and set up a screen to play video mixes (shoutout to Ian for your Monster Mash halloween mix!) and some promotional clips for Ambistream and AIweekNY.

So what did we learn from the event? We started to get a sense of the mood before the event because people had to answer questions about their relationship, worries and hopes related to AI, before they could attend. We knew that there would be about 50% AI maximalists and 50% of people who are cautious about AI growth. At check-in we asked folks to add a green or yellow sticker to their name tag to indicate their stance, using traffic-light colors.

What people meant by “maximalist” vs “cautious” varied in tone. For some, being a maximalist meant leaning into rapid capability gains and broad experimentation, as opposed to an unregulated race toward AGI ASAP. The cautious side tended to emphasize regulation, economic planning, and slowing down where human risk is high.

About halfway through, I filmed some AI Hot Takes to capture anyone who wanted to share a quick thought.. To be honest, most of these clips were the second take because everyone had so much to say. It became a running joke that I was requesting another take to say it in 2 sentences instead of 2 minutes. And at the end of the video the tables were turned and I was put in that position. It’s a weird position to be in, but the end result makes for a better video mashup.

Pics or it didn’t happen (photos from the event)

Here are some of the positive hot takes:

I think that the hardware side is going to have more innovation and lead to an age of abundance. More than the software side.
AI will build better cities than what we as humans have built in the last 30,000 years.
I think AI is great at things that are very certain and humans are great at knowing how to deal with complexity, how to deal with things when things are ambiguous. So I expect AI to not take jobs that are very subjective in nature
I am excited about AI’s potential to help anyone build apps without any coding experience, including kids
I’m excited about the potential of AI in healthcare and helping people’s lives improve

Advice and words of caution:

We created our entire economy around things being mediated through screens. And now AI is going to change everything that goes on within the screen.
Use AI as a template. Make the stuff that you want to create. And don’t let AI create you. You need to create with AI.

Some worry:

Society has some reckoning coming. We’re going to lose a lot of intellectual and creative jobs. We’re not going to be able to fill them back up.
How do you treat AI both as technology that’s going to bring about so many great things for society, but also that can be weaponized and do so many detrimental things to society? It’s a double-edged sword.
I don’t think we should build AGI. We can use AI as a augmentation tool for people, but AGI feels like we’re going a step too far. It’s kind of like the Jurassic park example. We never stopped to ask if we should while the incentives are in place that it’s going to happen anyway. I think with a little caution and a little bit of humanity is worth saving.
I don’t think the economics are sustainable. I think we’re facing a, massive unemployment shift ahead of us with structural unemployment. And I think universal basic income is probably going to be the only way out of this.
If we focus on human-centered design, the robots won’t kill us.

And here are some sassy takes:

AI founders are going to be the new celebrities.
AI is here to stay and we have to adapt or die. I’m gonna give you the really hot chicken McNugget crispy barbecued hot wings take on that. Adapt or die. I’m cautiously optimistic.
Artificial intelligence is really not artificial. It’s actually a reflection of ourselves. AI might become our way to understand ourselves better.
I think biological bootloaders might be a purpose worth exploring.

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who came, stuck on a sticker, and said something worth hearing. Big thanks to Pulse NYC, The Folly, Angel Club, JPH, and Ian for helping make this event happen. Sign up for our newsletter for more updates, we plan to hold more of these soon!

See the event page on Luma

AI Hot Takes from the #AIweekNY opening night party