Mirror Mirror on AI is an experimental debate series that examines the human perspective and relationship with AI. The concept was created by artist and experience designer Lyuba Matyunina, developed with Sarah Austin and Maggie Minton, supported by Epicenter Amsterdam and Finom. Spaces are limited, do register early.

For the opening night of World AI Week Amsterdam, we would like to turn the mirror of AI around and ask you how certain you are about your views on it.

Do you trust AI too easily? Are you sceptical of it? Or are you somewhere in the middle, moving forward with caution as the technology moves with us?

Mirror Mirror is part debate, part live experiment.

What's actually happening at the event? Four speakers working in and around AI will take on four statements designed to divide the room, discussing and debating. The topics are revealed live, so there are no prepared answers and no polished panel talking points.

The audience is part of the debate too. You will hear the statement, decide where you stand, and vote before and after each round.

The rules are simple:

  • Speakers respond in turn.

  • Once an argument has been made, it cannot be repeated.

  • Each person has to find a new way into the question.

  • The audience votes before and after the discussion.

At the end, we are not interested in declaring a winner.

We want to know how many minds moved, and the audience will show us in real time through an interactive vote before and after each round.

The debate takes place alongside a mirrored set, with speakers, audience and arguments reflected back from every direction, much like AI itself reflects our language, ideas and assumptions back to us.

Speakers

  • Lisanne Buik works at the intersection of AI ethics, futures thinking and design. She is the founder of Gracious AI and a PhD researcher in AI ethics and design at Sapienza Università di Roma, with work spanning Philips Design, Microsoft, KPMG, the Van Gogh Museum, TEDx and more..

  • Michael Halley has been working with AI since 2017, relocating to Amsterdam from the US, bringing an AI chatbot to the Dutch market for customer experience and contact centre applications whilst working with IPsoft. Recently he’s been busy launching GUST-AI, his Amsterdam based startup that ensures AI tools in organisations work from one single knowledge base, stay aligned with a company's ethics & mission and maintain standards of operational excellence.

  • Derek Lomas is a tenured professor of Positive AI at TU Delft, working on bridging Human-Centered Design and Artificial Intelligence.

  • Marina Orlova is a dance/theatre maker and tech dramaturg based in Amsterdam. Since 2020 she works with AI ethics and Data feminism and trains paradoxical chatbots (non-European AI, mentally unstable AI). Marina creates  interdisciplinary performances by combining her background in sociology, engineering logic and theatre apparatus, using technology as both metaphor and mirror to societal issues. In 2024 Marina founded EIAI.Institute and presented its research at various conferences and universities in Europe.

Run of the night

  • 18:00 - Doors: Drinks, bites, and time to explore the space. Come early, wander and find yourself in the room.

  • 18:30 - Mirror Mirror begins: A short introduction to the format, the speakers and how the audience vote works. Then the first statement is revealed and the debate begins.

  • 20:00 - The result: Not who won. How many of you changed your mind.

  • Afterwards: Drinks, bites and conversation.

Come with an opinion. Leave with a different one.

Supported by Finom, an Amsterdam fintech running an all-in-one business account for freelancers and founders across Europe, with AI already built into how it handles accounting.

Venue: Epicenter Amsterdam, the Nordic innovation hub’s waterfront outpost near Centraal Station, designed for connections and collisions.

Concept & Curation: dot & salt, a presence design studio creating events and experiences at the intersection of contemporary art and mythology for AI companies, tech scale-ups and the teams building fast inside them.

This series is developed in collaboration with Maggie Minton, Sarah Austin, and Tech Makers.