The Future of Education

The media claims that artificial intelligence is threatening human creativity in many areas, including original works in visual arts. This concern about the authenticity of creative work produced with technology (the machine) has been a controversial topic since Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. The role of the machine has been feared and disparaged as each new technology became accepted and used as tools of artistic expression. AI is just another part of this progress and will not replace human creativity but augment it. To explore artificial intelligences’ potential and limitations, I added an AI component to my university classes last semester to see how students would utilize the bots that are currently available to them. I started by asking students to use search terms they would use to describe themselves and user personas to write text to image prompts. To obtain a satisfactory result, the user must craft a prompt that explains his intent to the bot to deliver “relevant and accurate responses” [2]. Prompt writing requires a digital literacy based on a clarity of language that is akin to using a search engine. The more accurate and descriptive the wording of the prompt is, the more the outcome matches the desired result. Exploration and play through the bot and the created image can return results that are unexpected and previously unthought of by the user. Students’ comments in my classes confirmed this experience. To assess students’ reactions, I used post-assignment surveys to track the ease and difficulties of creating a directed image with AI. These contained information about the benefits and disadvantages of using AI in design projects. Students found AI rapidly created detailed images that would take them many hours to produce; however, many of the images required additional reworking. This semester in my digital storytelling class, that includes Jungian archetypes and Campbell’s steps of the hero’s journey, students will create characters, a script and a short 2D/ 3D animation. They may use ChatGBT, Adobe Firefly, speech and sound AI generators to aid them in the project. I believe the class will find that AI is a great way to ideate and explore ideas and media creation, but that they will still be a need for human execution in these animations and that students’ reflections on the experience will conclude that AI is just another way that humans extend their creativity with technology [3].

Keywords: AI, Artificial Intelligence, design, curriculum, higher-education, prompt-writing

References:

[1] … Benjamin, W. (2008). The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction (J. A. Underwood, Trans.). Penguin Books.  

[2] … Groys, B. (n.d.). AI as zeitgeist-machine - notes -e-flux. E-flux.com. Retrieved September 19, 2023, from https://www.eflux.com/notes/553214/from-writing-toprompting-ai-as-zeitgeist-machine

[3] … McLuhan, M., & Fiore, Q. (1989). The medium is the massage (11th ed.). Pocket Books.