AI Variety Show 2025
Speakers
Event date
August 7, 2025

The third annual IDEO AI Variety Show showcases various AI-powered projects and experiments made by IDEOers, including generative ceramics, a humane Slackbot, and an AI-driven music sequencer.

The show reflects the evolution of AI from a tool for image generation to a "partner" for creating immersive, interactive experiences and products, with all elements from videos to scripts and music created or shaped using AI. This year's theme is "hallucinations," with projects appearing in a randomized order. Highlights include a generative clay tool for designing ceramics based on story arcs, a Slackbot called "Coffee Karma" that incentivizes peer-to-peer coffee deliveries to foster connection, an AI-powered music sequencer with audio-reactive visualizations, and an AI agent for finding meeting recommendations using Google Maps. The session emphasizes designing automated systems with human intervention and capacity in mind, and explores AI in the context of playful and augmented imagination, such as a collectible card game inspired by insect identification.