“Many of humanity’s most significant inventions have come from mistakes,” she noted. “That’s why I’m curious to see how AI will evolve through the unexpected, even beautiful errors it produces.”Two takeaways defined the night. Maya Man framed AI as a tool of confrontation—not a shortcut—training on her own face and embracing distortions to expose bias and the pressure of self-image. “Because of how they’re trained, generative AI models act like a distorted reflection of the world as it already is,” she said. “For me, it was compelling to use that technology to recreate a style of imagery I’ve been surrounded by my whole life: advertising.”