The first New Orleans Arts & Ideas Festival expanded conversations around AI education, creativity, and establishing AI culture-bearers in New Orleans.
Symposium • 10 AM–4:30 PM
New Orleans Jazz Museum, 400 Esplanade Ave.
9:00 AM
Check-in Opens
Coffee and pastries provided.
10:00 AM
Opening Remarks
10:10 AM
AI in the Classroom
Panel with Dr. Vicki Mayer (Tulane), Julia Lang (Tulane), and Dr. Supratik Mukhopadhyay (LSU) discussing ethical and practical considerations around using AI with students.
11:11 AM
New Orleans 2033: How NOLA Becomes Culture-Bearer of the AI Generation
Discussion with State Representative Aimee Adatto Freeman, Ramgopal Mettu (Tulane), and Gerard Ramos (Revelry). Moderated by Blake Bertuccelli-Booth (Equalify).
12:00 PM
Using LLMs for Early Childhood Learning
Lightning talk by Justin Obney (PayStar) on large language models and AI tools for early childhood education.
12:15 PM
ACX Lunch and Learn
Food from Sweet Soulfood, plus a discussion of "Pause For Thought: The AI Pause Debate" from Astral Codex Ten.
1:00 PM
Drum Interlude
An eleven-minute performance by Simon Lott.
1:11 PM
Alex Ebert's EEG Machine
Presentation by Alex Ebert (Edward Sharpe) on his latest musical creation.
1:40 PM
AI x-Risk: An Introduction to AI Existential Risk
Discussion with Noah Siegel (Google DeepMind) about AI existential risk.
2:10 PM
Helping Students Read with AI
Lightning talk by Shauntel Cooley on lessons from her work with the AI reading assistant Amira.
2:25 PM
AI From LLMs to Agents: A Journey Through the LangChain Ecosystem
Presentation by Dustin Hughes exploring the LangChain ecosystem and building complex language models.
2:55 PM
AI + Chess in New Orleans
Lightning talk by Baylee Badawy (Chess Cave) on chess history and the intersection of chess and AI.
3:10 PM
AI for the Visual Creator
Panel with Beau Ross (New Orleans Cinematic Universe), Luke Hawley (IBM), H. Cole Wiley (Tulane), and Zachary Pine (Tulane). Moderated by Joseph Makkos (Intelligent Archives).
3:50 PM
AI + Accessibility
Panel with Adam Wood (Adobe), Kevin Andrews (Georgetown), and Dr. Saad Hassan (Tulane) on how AI is being used to help people with disabilities. Moderated by Blake Bertuccelli-Booth (Equalify).
4:20 PM
Closing Remarks & Performance
Music by Sly Watts.
Live Performances • 5–9 PM
Operation Spark, 514 Franklin Ave. Food trucks, chess games with Chess Cave, AI creations from The Electric Monks, a performance by Very Cherry, and more.
Afterparty • 10:22 PM–till
Vaughan's Lounge, 800 Lesseps St. DJ sets from C'est Funk & The Archivist — dancing and food for purchase.
Sponsors & Partners
- Living School
- New Orleans Jazz Museum
- Operation Spark
- Equalify
- Decubing
- Prodops.ai
- Intelligent Archives
- Petite Clouet
- Astral Codex
- Gallatin Street Records
- Chess Cave
- Drumsville
- Bywater Branding Services