Hong Kong International AI Art Festival Panel Probes Creativity Without Boundaries

As artificial intelligence lowers the technical barriers to making images, films and animations, a panel at the Hong Kong International AI Art Festival turned its focus to what still separates meaningful creation from effortless generation: human judgment.

The discussion, titled “AI Empowering Boundless Creativity,” was moderated on behalf of Variety by Quist Tsang, a Hong Kong–based photographer and visual artist, as part of the festival’s public forum program. Tsang steered the conversation toward concrete practice rather than speculation, asking how AI is already reshaping creative work, education and professional decision-making.

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Panelists represented a cross-section of platforms, academia and industry, including Zeng Yushen, head of operations at Kling AI; Jennifer Lin, associate VP for global strategy at City University of Hong Kong; Wang Lei, dean and professor at the School of Animation and Digital Arts at Communication University of China; veteran visual effects supervisor Ma Wenxian; Kling AI creator and digital artist Lin Gengxu; and HKUST master’s student and digital artist Ivy Zhang.

Across the discussion, speakers returned repeatedly to the idea that while AI accelerates production and lowers entry barriers, it does not remove the need for taste, responsibility and decision-making. Zeng described how AI tools have expanded what small teams can realistically produce, but emphasized that outcomes still depend on how clearly creators define what they want to make.

During the panel, Zeng also referenced recent updates to Kling’s underlying models, framing them as part of an evolving effort to support more precise human–machine collaboration rather than as formal announcements. He pointed to the release of Kling O1, which integrates generation, editing and understanding into a unified multimodal workflow, as well as the Video 2.6 model, which introduces native audio generation and improved audio-visual synchronization, enabling creators to generate dialogue, sound effects and ambient sound alongside video in a single process.

From an academic perspective, Wang argued that artistic standards themselves have not changed. Art, he said, remains a form of emotional communication between people, with works acting as intermediaries. Without that resonance, technological sophistication alone is meaningless. While AI may blur the boundary between producer and consumer by enabling broader participation, Wang stressed that sustained training in aesthetics and judgment remains essential.

Ma, drawing on decades of experience in film and visual effects, offered a more cautious industry view. While AI can speed up image generation, he noted that maintaining narrative continuity and meeting a director’s precise intent remains challenging. In professional workflows, control and accuracy continue to outweigh novelty.

Younger creators on the panel framed AI less as a shortcut than as a collaborator. Lin Gengxu described using AI in both personal and commercial projects to explore ideas that would previously have been difficult or impossible to realize, provided the creator maintains a clear sense of direction. Zhang spoke about AI enabling artists to move more fluidly across media, allowing abstract ideas to be visualized without deep technical specialization.

Education emerged as a key fault line. Lin pushed back against suggestions that humanities and social sciences are becoming irrelevant in the AI era, arguing instead that judgment, ethics and aesthetic sensitivity are becoming more important as tools grow more powerful. Wang echoed the point, arguing that as AI absorbs many tool-based skills, what remains distinctively human is a combination of curiosity, experience and tacit knowledge that cannot be reduced to data.

The discussion formed part of a broader industry forum convened by Kling AI examining how generative tools are reshaping creative practice across art, education and screen industries. Those initiatives have included collaborations with established filmmakers and artists, including Academy Award–winning production designer Tim Yip, whose human–machine co-creation work with the platform was previously examined by Variety.

Looking ahead three to five years, panelists offered differing views on what AI-native art forms might emerge. Ma argued for introducing AI creative tools at earlier stages of education, suggesting that younger students without entrenched assumptions may push the medium in unexpected directions. Lin Gengxu anticipated a proliferation of niche, community-driven content as creation tools become widely accessible, while Zhang pointed to interactive formats that could allow audiences to participate directly in shaping narratives.

Wang cautioned against assuming that today’s dominant AI aesthetics – often dreamlike and fragmented – will define the future. He characterized these styles as artifacts of current technical limitations rather than settled artistic languages, arguing that diversity, not uniformity, is the more likely outcome.

Closing the session, Tsang noted that while AI continues to expand the physical limits of creation, meaning, judgment and responsibility remain firmly in human hands — a conclusion that underscored the panel’s central theme.