Asad Ayub is a creative technologist, inventor, musician, and writer with a long-standing dream of creating his own animated series. His creative journey began with writing short stories and learning sound design, eventually leading him to immerse himself in animation and hone his drawing skills, all with the ultimate goal of bringing a 2D animated series to life. Originally a musician, he accidentally fell down the rabbit hole of AI filmmaking while on a quest to improve his music videos. Eventually, he helped create the MadHatter Foundation for Emerging Technology, based in Amsterdam, to serve as a platform for facilitating radical innovation and collaboration. The MadHatter Foundation hosts AI Film Festivals around the world.

Asad is a trained anthropologist and an adopted member of the ancient Kalasha Tribe, a culture on the brink of extinction with only a few thousand members remaining. In the remote, high-altitude regions where the Kalasha reside, Asad conceived the flagship project of his organization, the MadHatter Tribal Project. This initiative brings together AI filmmaking experts to tell tales of the past using tools of the future.

During the talk, Asad will showcase some of his own AI art and the latest award-winning ads, short films, and other work created by our community of super-users, a.k.a. the MadHatter Fellows.