Mirror Mirror on AI — Experimental AI Debate | World AI Week 2026 Kickoff

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 wi