Marina Hassapopoulou is an Associate Professor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and founder of ExpressiveAI.net, an interdisciplinary platform exploring the creative, ethical, and cultural dimensions of artificial intelligence. She is the author of Interactive Cinema: The Ambiguous Ethics of Media Participation (University of Minnesota Press, 2024) and a frequent speaker and commentator on AI, media ethics, interactive arts preservation, interactive and immersive storytelling, and emerging technologies. Through her research, teaching, and public-facing work, she advocates for the inclusion of arts and humanities perspectives in the development, governance, and cultural uses of AI.

Steven Masur, Partner, Raines Feldman Littrell LLP: Steven Masur has over 25 years of experience advising emerging and established businesses on new opportunities and business challenges. He focuses his practice on corporate finance, M&A, intellectual property, entertainment, emerging businesses and strategic guidance. Steve has extensive experience in angel and venture capital finance, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and cross-border transactions in Europe and Asia. He is passionate about helping new businesses plan a path to success, and helping older businesses bridge the gap to new markets. Steve brings a unique mix of legal, business, and strategic experience to bear on client matters. He has counseled enterprise level clients including Shazam, Virgin Mobile, Liberty Media, Yamaha, Nielsen Buzzmetrics, Bob Vila and Conde Nast Publications in corporate, digital media, and new business matters. He has also helped emerging businesses in a wide variety of sectors, and is especially knowledgeable in media, entertainment, advertising, consumer products, food and technology, including mobile, games, digital music, social media, augmented and virtual reality, software and hardware. Steve has been recognized as a “Rising Star” and a “Super Lawyer” by Super Lawyers. He serves on a variety of corporate and nonprofit boards and industry associations, and lectures and writes about major issues in venture capital, emerging businesses, entertainment law, technology and corporate strategy.

Ari Kuschnir, New Wave Storyteller & Founder of m ss ng p eces:  Ari Kuschnir is a visionary and creative catalyst who consistently pushes the boundaries of contemporary storytelling. He is the founder of m ss ng p eces, which produces award-winning content and immersive experiences with the world’s leading brands. Recently, he’s become an online sensation, creating mind-bending viral AI videos, including Biden & Trump becoming BFFs, Trump doing Ayahuasca, and Joe getting lost and finding himself in the Amazon, among others. Through these works and speaking engagements, he sparks joy and wonder, planting seeds in the collective imagination that a different world is possible.

Tommy Petrov, a Tech Creative Director and artist, was born in Crimea, Ukraine. He has a rich educational background thanks to multiple scholarships that enabled him to study in Israel. He holds Fine and Applied Arts degrees from the Ukrainian Academy of Printing and a BA in Visual Communication from the Holon Institute of Technology. Artem’s career journey includes building his own successful communication agency, servicing accounts of Fortune 500 clients, and serving as Creative Director at Snap Inc, where he played a crucial role in launching the Spectacles AR glasses for Creators. He later joined Meta as a Tech Creative Director, building experiences and products for Mixed Reality, further expanding his expertise in the tech industry. He founded and led an AdTech business for a decade, collaborating with names like Disney and L'Oreal and launching products that led to multimillion-dollar exits. Made an exit in his first business and moved to the US! Artem was the CPO and co-founder of GetGen.ai, a platform that offers seamless and secure access to Generative AI models for enterprise clients. He is currently Co-founder and CEO at CopySight AI. CopySight AI’s Mission: to revolutionize the IP review process for AI-generated content, clearing the way for creativity. The company builds IP scoring models for AI-generated content and develops a service for licensing AI-generated content for commercial use. "

Ted Schilowitz, Futurist, Paramount Global: Ted spends his time and pursues his passion in a unique role in the entertainment industry. Ted works across the leadership and the technology teams across Paramount Global, including CBS, CBS Sports, Paramount Pictures, Paramount Plus, MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, PlutoTV and Comedy Central, exploring emerging tech for entertainment with an emphasis on Virtual and Mixed Reality and Web 3.0/ MetaVerse pursuits. Prior to joining Paramount, Ted was the Futurist at 20th Century Fox, where he worked on the evolving art, science and technology of advanced interactive visual storytelling. He was part of the creation team for the Martian VR and Wild VR experiences, which premiered at CES and Sundance as groundbreaking projects that pushed the envelope of Virtual Reality storytelling, Ted was part of the creation teams for the Alien, Planet of the Apes and Predator VR experiences at Fox, and at his current home at Paramount Pictures, he’s been instrumental in bringing the Grease Mixed Reality experience, the Light as a Feather mixed reality experience and the Quiet Place Virtual Reality experience to life. Ted was an integral part of the product development team at Red Digital Cinema as the company’s first employee. The Red One and Epic cameras have made a significant impact on the Motion Picture Industry, winning a Sci-Tech Academy award. Many of the world’s biggest movies are now being shot with these ultra high resolution digital movie cameras. Ted is one of the founders and creators of the G-Tech product line of advanced hard drive storage products. As one of the most recognized brands in that industry, they are implemented worldwide at the highest levels on cinema, episodic television, sports and news production. In his role as Chief Creative Officer at Barco Escape, he spearheaded an experimental immersive cinema project for movie theaters worldwide. Titles include Paramount Pictures Star Trek Beyond and 20th Century Fox Maze Runner & Maze Runner 2. Before being part of the founding teams at Red Digital Cinema and G-Tech, Ted was on the team that developed and launched the Macintosh desktop video division of AJA Video Systems, creating professional video products in tandem with Apple. These products are used on a massive scale worldwide for video production and post at the highest levels, on many of the world’s biggest movies, TV series and sporting events. Ted has presented worldwide at numerous conferences on the advancements in next generation visual experiences for the movie, television and, interactive entertainment industries. He’s been featured in Wired, Variety, NY Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, The Hollywood Reporter, NBC, CNET, Studio Daily, Videography, Film and Video, DV Magazine, TV Technology, HD Video Pro, Engadget, Gizmodo, Millimeter, American Cinematographer, MacWorld, Post Magazine, Popular Science, and countless other publications discussing his areas of passion and exploration. In 2019, Ted was honored at the Variety Hall of Fame event with the Variety Innovation Award.