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Even amidst the rapid advancement of technology, it remains essential to find a balance between innovation and tradition — this was the focus of the international MCC Budapest Summit on Technology and Society. The three-day series of events took place not only in Budapest but also in our regional centers, with Székesfehérvár serving as a key location where participants could join the collective exchange of ideas.
The lecture focused on the relationship between artificial intelligence and human creativity. Writer and producer Sam Kahn shared his thoughts on the topic with a large audience, while the conversation was guided by questions from Leonardo Orlando, visiting fellow at MCC.
Today, AI not only serves but also creates—or at least, that’s what many believe. Sam Kahn, however, approaches the issue with skepticism. He warned that what we call AI does not feel, decide, or create—it merely combines data and returns the average.
In his view, true creation does not come from algorithms, but from experience and inner truth. Art—what he called “the pagan temple” of humanity—is the space where individual perspective takes shape. This is a depth no technology can replace.
As he put it, everyone uses AI today including himself. If someone, for instance, has a skin rash, a machine can provide a response within seconds. But the decision—whether or not to see a doctor—is still ours to make. Responsibility always remains with the human.
In the creative world, three directions are emerging: the “purists” who consciously exclude AI, those who build on it, and the hybrid creators. Sam believes that, in the long run, those who think and create as human beings will remain authentic—because truth is born from lived experience.
He also shared a particularly memorable story: on one occasion, his students chose not to rely on the convenience of AI. Instead, they sat down, discussed, weighed their options, and made a decision together. They didn’t copy, they didn’t generate, they solved the task through real thinking. Sam shared with pride: the content of the answer wasn’t the most important part, it was the fact that there were humans behind the decision.
In closing, he delivered a clear message: AI may still be free today, but it won’t remain so for long. Just as social media collects our data, maps our relationships, and shapes our worldview, AI will increasingly map everything more deeply and more personally. And although we’ll continue asking our questions, it won’t be the system that learns what we want but we who learn to accept the answers we’re given. We’ll grow accustomed to the average, to pre-calculated responses and gradually, without realizing it, the possibility of choice will fade within us.
If that happens, free decision-making and creativity will vanish along with every other possible answer. The machine calculates but the human only creates if they are still capable of choosing something else.
Meanwhile, unnoticed, a new phenomenon is emerging: a collective unconscious maintained by algorithms, formed through the internet, a space where responses are no longer shaped by individual thought, but by patterns formed by the masses. And in that space, the true challenge of human creativity will be whether we can still speak in our own voice.
