Stimuleringsfonds

For three days, Loods6 on Amsterdam’s KNSM Island was transformed into a breeding ground for critical AI thinkers. The Slow AI Festival by AIxDESIGN brought together researchers, artists and the curious to challenge dominant tech-narratives and tell new stories about artificial intelligence.

17 July 2025

AIxDESIGN originated as a Slack group in 2018, but the organisation is now an international community of more than 8,000 critical AI thinkers. In May 2025, founder Nadia Piet’s initiative culminated with the first Slow AI Festival – a three-day event where visitors not only learned about AI, but could also experience an alternative approach to technology for themselves.

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Beyond the hype and doomsday scenario

‘The implementation of AI as we often see it today is limited. We think there are many other possibilities beyond the dominant imagination,’ Nadia Piet says in the video portrait. As founder of AIxDESIGN, she saw how the AI discourse is increasingly defined by the same voices.

While the popular AI discourse often oscillates between techno-optimism and a doomsday scenario, AIxDESIGN deliberately opts for a third position. Inspired by movements such as slow food and slow fashion, the Slow AI project seeks alternatives to AI development dominated by big tech companies. ‘We focus on small AI that is actually of value to real people, but on a much smaller scale,’ Nadia explains.

Playing, hacking and creating

The three-day festival at Loods6 translated the research insights into practice. Participants could attend workshops such as Make Your Own Small AI, where they made their own AI model. There were art installations, an AI film programme, and activities that explored the boundary between play and critical enquiry.

The implementation of AI as we often see it today is limited. We think there are many other possibilities beyond the dominant imagination.

‘It was mainly about creating a moment of inclusiveness and sharing useful knowledge,’ writes festival attendee Chiara Vignandel in her recap. ‘We played with technology, hacked it, found ways to overcome glitches and had genuine fun, using intuition and creativity as guides.’

The festival united more than 13 partners and attracted visitors from all over the world. By making AI literacy more accessible and providing space for other voices, the event contributed to what Nadia calls ‘third spaces’ – places that are separate from both tech industries and academic institutions. After the festival, participants returned home with new perspectives on artificial intelligence. Not as something that happens to them, but as something that can be shaped with human impact.