Art House Café cancels AI event after artist backlash

Art House Café, the popular Centretown arts venue on Somerset Street, cancelled a planned AI gathering after community outcry from artists and customers who saw the event as endorsing technology they view as a threat to creative work.

The event, called "Saturday AI Club," was scheduled for June 13 as a "relaxed afternoon for people building with AI, or just curious about it, to work on a project, compare notes, and ask questions." The venue posted the announcement to Instagram without anticipating how its audience—many of them working artists—would respond.

Geneviève Bétournay, owner and artistic director, acknowledged the oversight. "There was an oversight," she said. "We could have anticipated that this would be very disruptive to people in our audience and that we need to approach these kinds of things that might be sensitive topics with more consideration."

In two statements posted after the backlash, the café clarified it "does not support the use of generative AI" and announced plans to develop comprehensive policies after discussions with staff. Bétournay said she had approved the booking after organizers presented it as an open discussion space rather than an instructional workshop, believing it would be "an opportunity for people to gather, to talk about and explore AI."

Emily Tower, a frequent customer, said public pressure made the cancellation possible. "This would have gone on had people not spoken up," she said. The intensity of the reaction reflected genuine concern within Art House's creative community. "The feeling of there being a threat is very real," Bétournay acknowledged. "Considering how much uncertainty it is creating, it is entirely understandable that people would have very strong reactions."