[Event Readback] AI Impact Pre-Summit Event Readback: Culture, Cultural Industries & Artificial Intelligence

We are delighted to share the readback from our pre-summit event, "Culture, Cultural Industries & Artificial Intelligence: Building Creative Bridges Between Humans and Machines", held at the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), Bengaluru, on 22 January 2026.

The event was organised by The Pranava Institute and iSPIRT as an official pre-summit event of the AI Impact Summit 2026, with institutional support from the Consulate General of France in Bengaluru, Tara Gaming, Dassault Systèmes, and AIFPRO.

About the Event

The workshop was conceived as an Indo-French dialogue, bringing together artists, researchers, philosophers, technologists, educators, entrepreneurs, and policy thinkers from both countries for a full-day immersive programme. 

Conversations were structured around three thematic axis:

• Languages & Cultural Diversity — exploring AI's relationship with multilingualism, embodied cognition, and authentic expression

• AI & Artistic Practices — examining how artists are collaborating with, critiquing, and being transformed by AI tools

• Ethics & Philosophy of Creativity — engaging questions of authorship, cultural risk, governance, and what it means to create responsibly in the age of AI

  
  

The speakers at the event included:

• Marc Lamy, French Consul General, Bengaluru

• Prof. Francis Rousseaux, Researcher in AI; Expert Technique International; iSPIRT Fellow

• Shyam Krishnakumar, Director and Co-founder, The Pranava Institute

• Nicolas Granatino, Founder of STEM AI India; Executive Chairman at Tara Gaming

• Dr. Arunkumar Santhalingam, Director, IFRINA & President, AIFPRO

• Raghava KK, Multidisciplinary Artist; Storyteller; Pioneer in the Field of Art & Technology

• Karthik Kalyanaraman, Educator, AI & Managerial Economics

• Harshit Agrawal, Creative Tech at Google Arts and Culture; AI and New Media Artist

• Prof. Alexandre Gefen, Research Professor at the French National Centre for Scientific Research

• Prof. Alain Bonardi, Professor of Computer Science and Musical Creation at the Université Paris 8

• Prof. Frédéric Fol Leymarie, Professor, Goldsmiths, University of London

• Suzanne Bernert, Actor; Over 50 film and TV credits — Suzanne’s acting journey is firmly rooted in India

• Dr. Renan Mouren, Information scientist, INSA Hauts-de-France & Lecturer, Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France (UPHF)

• Varun Mayya, Founder Yaas Media & AEOS Labs; Co-founder AEOS Games

• Rohan Mayya, Co-founder AEOS Games

• Cédric Lejeune, Data & Media Tech Expert; Independent Researcher

• Nicolas Martin, Senior Data Scientist; Founder/CEO of Fractal-Apps Pvt Ltd

• Prof. Pierre-Jean Benghozi, Emeritus Research Director CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research)

• Prof. Vanessa Nurock, Professor of Philosophy at Côte d’Azur University; Deputy Director of the Center of Research in the History of Ideas (CRHI); UNESCO EVA Chair

• Dr. Jacopo Domenicucci, Moral philosopher at the Centre for Data Futures, Kings College London

• Samrat Banerjee, CT and Digitalisation Advisor at GIZ; Volunteer at iSPIRT

  
  

The readback captures the key ideas and insights from each session.

Read it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ERBR7rS3SNMhgoab7WiBHtFJxiYs2nhF/view?usp=share_link

We are deeply grateful to all the speakers and participants for taking the time to contribute their expertise and perspectives to this conversation.