--- title: For Artist Sougwen Chung, AI Is a Tool For Exploring ‘Hybridity’ | TIME description: Sougwen Chung refuses to be defined by binaries. The artist is a child of two cultures, two languages, and—in human terms—one musician and one computer programmer. “My work, at its simplest level, is about exploring the contradictions that stem from not fitting neatly into one category,” Chung, who identifies as nonbinary, said on Sunday in Dubai, where they accepted a TIME100 Impact Award for their influence on the field of artificial intelligence. “I like to think of [it] as a new hybridity.” canonical: https://time.com/video/SZklXXim/ og:title: For Artist Sougwen Chung, AI Is a Tool For Exploring ‘Hybridity’ og:description: Sougwen Chung refuses to be defined by binaries. The artist is a child of two cultures, two languages, and—in human terms—one musician and one computer programmer. “My work, at its simplest level, is about exploring the contradictions that stem from not fitting neatly into one category,” Chung, who identifies as nonbinary, said on Sunday in Dubai, where they accepted a TIME100 Impact Award for their influence on the field of artificial intelligence. “I like to think of [it] as a new hybridity.” og:url: https://time.com/video/SZklXXim/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/SZklXXim/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: For Artist Sougwen Chung, AI Is a Tool For Exploring ‘Hybridity’ twitter:description: Sougwen Chung refuses to be defined by binaries. The artist is a child of two cultures, two languages, and—in human terms—one musician and one computer programmer. “My work, at its simplest level, is about exploring the contradictions that stem from not fitting neatly into one category,” Chung, who identifies as nonbinary, said on Sunday in Dubai, where they accepted a TIME100 Impact Award for their influence on the field of artificial intelligence. “I like to think of [it] as a new hybridity.” twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/SZklXXim/poster.jpg?width=720 --- * Tech # For Artist Sougwen Chung, AI Is a Tool For Exploring ‘Hybridity’ > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: For Artist Sougwen Chung, AI Is a Tool For Exploring ‘Hybridity’ [Watch (HLS stream): For Artist Sougwen Chung, AI Is a Tool For Exploring ‘Hybridity’](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/SZklXXim.m3u8) (5:35)  _Published 2024-02-11. Sougwen Chung refuses to be defined by binaries. The artist is a child of two cultures, two languages, and—in human terms—one musician and one computer programmer. “My work, at its simplest level, is about exploring the contradictions that stem from not fitting neatly into one category,” Chung, who identifies as nonbinary, said on Sunday in Dubai, where they accepted a TIME100 Impact Award for their influence on the field of artificial intelligence. “I like to think of it as a new hybridity.”_ --- Feb 11, 2024 10:20 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [At TIME100 Impact Dinner, Leaders Discuss AI and the Future of Fashion](/video/rwcSzWhI/) ### At TIME100 Impact Dinner, Leaders Discuss AI and the Future of Fashion [AI Robotic Arms Have Learned to Copy an Artist's Brush Strokes](/video/hNlfnLIf/) ### AI Robotic Arms Have Learned to Copy an Artist's Brush Strokes [TIME100 AI Innovators: Sougwen Chung](/video/S22RQ3Tp/) ### TIME100 AI Innovators: Sougwen Chung --- ## Transcript Thank you. All it is an honor to be here. Thank you to Time Magazine For This Moment of Celebration and reflection. My name is Sue Glenn Chung and I'm an artist and researcher exploring What Becomes of the human hand? I'm profoundly honored to accept this impact award the time impact award hearing to buy this recognition underscores the critical role of artistic voices, especially those emerging from the margins in shaping our Collective future. I'm inspired by Grace Lee Boggs who wrote these are the times to grow our souls. She believes that creativity is vital in producing the necessary conditions not just for our survival, but for our Evolution her words and Grace's life as an Asian-American Veloster and activists are Testament to hybridity, hybridity of thought and culture. Her office is the author author ship of my peers and the Creative Energy of the new generation to continue to inspire and challenge me everyday my work at its simplest level is about exploring the contradictions that stem from not fitting really neatly into one category exploring how those contradictions and quiet at a certain path Beyond Simple binary what I like to think of as a new hydro dipping. I'm interested in this third path perhaps because I am myself a blend of cultures and languages and the traveling musician and a computer programmer. Since beginning this work almost a decade ago. I've grown through the knowledge that the future cannot be shaped by binary of art or technology or the human and machine that we must create spaces for the third path the hybrid and the in-between spaces of artistry velocity engineering and design In the past. I've grown a world of my own Technical and artistic imagination and learned how to existing Technologies like AI existential Technologies. Like AI we have the opportunity to prove ourselves in another form our Collective states to learn through the machine as collaborator and the algorithm as creator. By building a world through my own tools and my own dataset. I've experienced the beauty of imperfect system the real labor involved in training an AI model on two decades of my own artwork and how first-hand computer vision algorithms shape how we see ourselves and each other. I felt and shared in the beauty and all of my own data Express back to me as your bought of juncture and in my journey, I've learned vitally that there's a meeting in the day, but it's not the meaning was given. It's the meaning that we make. I've learned that traditional forms of creativity must shape but not be replaced by technological development that building our own tools and AI systems can help us it with the existential questions posed by new technologies a way that fear and hope can be held in the mind at the same time. We live to serve the damage for a planet done by unchecked technological growth and the damage to our creative Industries to we need now more than ever approaches for ground hybrid creative Innovation that helped shape the development of the technology wall stewarding what came before This award is not just about me. It's a spotlight on the meaning made by the artist of today the artist that came before me and the ones to come we carry with us the knowledge that exploring The Human Condition despite the odd shapes the world in vital and profound ways. We urge you to move beyond the binary of thinking making an obscene and to be integrating the third path with us to explore the in between the case of imagination and hyper-v. I am deeply humbled by the opportunity to speak about something near and dear to my life before I leave you I want to express my deepest gratitude to time and all the people who supported me. I've been a recipient of love care and good will my parents my brother my partner and my friends are all here with me today in their own way. Thank you to my team and the people who would continue to support me through everything. Thank you to my Global community and thanks to all of you for celebrating his honor and improvement with us tonight together. We can grow our souls to create the future. We want to see and there is much to do. 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