Keynote: Cracks Between Brush and Algorithm — That’s Where the Light Gets In, A personal reflection on art, creativity, and the potential of AI
In this talk, oil painter and automation developer KeYi Huang shares her creative journey at the intersection of traditional painting and machine learning—an approach she calls High-Touch Human-AI Collaborative Art.
From building automation systems to support operations in the corporate world to founding her art studio, KyiAtelier, KeYi has always been drawn to the question: How can we use technology to support human creativity, rather than replace it?
In her early experiments with AI tools like GANs, she experienced a wave of inspiration—endless visual possibilities, unexpected patterns, and strange, beautiful distortions that pushed her artistic language in new directions. AI seemed to unlock both creative volume and surprise. But over time, the machine began to echo itself—repeating patterns, circling familiar styles. What once felt infinite began to feel predictable. And in that quiet shift, a deeper question surfaced: What happens when your medium stops helping you grow?
This talk invites the audience into those reflective moments—the cracks between brush and algorithm—where creativity isn’t just about producing more, but about pausing, sensing, and returning to what matters most. KeYi shares how she shifted her process: from chasing novelty to choosing intention; from fast iteration to thoughtful refinement. Today, she uses AI not to generate answers, but to ask better questions—and to return more fully to human touch, emotional depth, and artistic clarity.
A personal reflection on creativity, imperfection, and what it means to stay human in a world wired for speed and automation, this talk is for anyone exploring how technology might not replace us—but instead help us see ourselves more clearly and speak in our own voice. Because sometimes, it’s through the cracks that the light finally gets in.
KeYi Huang
Founder | Kyi Atelier
KeYi Huang is a Gen Z Chinese-born, LA based oil painter and automation bot developer whose work explores how AI can inspire emotional expression in human creativity. Raised by a bio-chemical engineer father and an amateur painter mother, KeYi found early comfort in art therapy classes, where she first experienced the healing power of creativity. That formative experience shaped her approach to both technology and painting—not as endpoints, but as tools to make space for more intentional, emotionally resonant work. From enterprise automation to founding her art studio, Kyi Atelier, KeYi’s journey has followed a consistent thread: using AI to support human expression, not replace it. At Dell, she led robotic process automation (RPA) and machine learning initiatives on the enterprise post-sales strategy team, building tools that streamlined workflows and gave people more time to focus on what mattered most. The heart of her work was always about empathy—mapping friction points and designing systems that helped others feel seen and supported. When she later founded Kyi Atelier, that mission evolved into a creative practice she calls High-Touch Human-AI Collaborative Art—a method of working with AI not to replace artistic intuition, but to challenge and inspire it. Her oil paintings—often translated into limited-edition silk prints—explore memory, distortion, and the emotional terrain of co-creation. KeYi holds both a Bachelor’s degree in Business Enterprise Management and a Master’s degree in Business Analytics from Wake Forest University, and is proud to be a Double Deacon. Her work has been featured at New York Fashion Week, in a commercial installation at 40 Wall Street, and on Artsy, where her original paintings were represented by a New York–based gallery. Most recently, her silk fashion line was selected by The Canvas, a United Nations–backed concept store and incubator in SoHo, New York City, as part of a curated collection celebrating sustainability, storytelling, and cross-disciplinary creativity.
