AI + Art Hackathon Recap
🎨🤖 AI + Art Hackathon Recap | A Creative Fusion at The Huddle, Google
On June 28, 2025, The Huddle at Google’s Visitor Experience Center in Mountain View buzzed with the energy of artists, technologists, and innovators coming together for a unique creative sprint: the AI + Art Hackathon. Blending the worlds of machine intelligence and artistic expression, this one-day event brought to life the future of creativity—with a theme rooted in sustainability: Clean Energy.
This event was sponsored by Silicon Valley Clean Energy, as part of our youth-led group ‘Clean Energy In Art’. More details about SVCE can be found here, and more details and events from ‘Clean Energy In Art’ can be found here.
The Event at a Glance
📍 Location: The Huddle at Google Visitor Experience
🕙 Time: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
🎨 Theme: Clean Energy
🧑⚖️ Judges: Fiona Wang, Councilmember Murali Srinivasan, Niyati P, Yanan Dai, Chris Held
🏆 Awards:
Most Innovative Presentation
Best Presentation Skills
Best Interpretation of Theme
After check-in and mingling, the hackathon kicked off with an introduction from Councilmember Murali Srinivasan and an inspirational talk from MetaU Founder Fiona Wang. Her talk explored how people are using generative AI to help their own art.
In addition, volunteer Annie He gave a short presentation on what Silicon Valley Clean Energy does and how it contributes to clean energy.
Workshops followed, giving participants hands-on experience with tools ranging from AI-assisted illustration and music generation to video synthesis and interactive game design—all infused with the challenge of interpreting clean energy through a creative lens.
In the afternoon, teams got to work. Over the span of just two hours, they brainstormed, prototyped, and brought their AI-powered artworks to life. The diversity of output was stunning—one group generated AI-enhanced visuals of clean energy maps, another built immersive games that taught ways to use clean energy, and yet another created a musical composition based on clean energy.
At 3:00 PM, each team had a chance to present their creations to an expert panel of judges. The passion and ingenuity on display made the judging process anything but easy. Projects were scored on seven points:
Underlying message
Artistic expression
Relevance to Clean Energy
Societal/Future Impact
Functionality
Quality of Presentation
Clarity & Logic of explanation
In the end, three standout projects earned top honors:
🏆 Most Innovative Presentation – For a 3D map of carbon data around the world, by Tiffany, Joyce, and Brayden.
🎤 Best Presentation Skills – For an animation showcasing how anyone can push for environmental justice, by Shanaya S.
🌱 Best Interpretation of Theme – For an interactive Scratch game by Katy, Cindy, Jenny, and Navya (which you can play here)
In addition, our volunteers Annie Yu, Annie He, Aiden Zhang, Catherine Liu, Russell Wang, Eric Huang, Olivia Xia, Ruiwen Luo, and William Xue received California State Legislature recognition for their work in combining the fields of environmental justice and AI.
As the hackathon came to a close at 5:00 PM, what remained was a buzz of inspiration and a room full of new collaborators. Whether you're an artist exploring algorithms or a coder inspired by color and sound, the AI + Art Hackathon was a vibrant reminder of what happens when creativity and technology collide with purpose.
This event wasn’t just about making art with AI, it was about using art to make a statement—on clean energy, on the future we want to build, and on the power of collective imagination.
