Today’s AI capabilities are yesterday’s science fiction \u2014 AI technologies can now generate text, images, music, and video with simple prompts. As they evolve, the world of what is possible keeps changing at breakneck speed.<\/p>\n
In education, AI technology has already started to influence how students learn, teachers teach, and, ultimately, what our educational system will come to look like in the years to come \u2014 revolutionizing teaching and learning as we know it. AI-powered tools and strategies will personalize learning and may even improve student outcomes by better preparing students for success in the digital age.<\/p>\n
Sal Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, a nonprofit that provides free, world-class educational tools for use by all, boldly declared in his 2023 TED talk<\/a> that AI has the potential to catalyze \u201cthe biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen.\u201d He sees a new era in education, where every teacher has an AI teaching assistant, and every student has access to an AI-powered personal tutor.<\/p>\n While there are ethical concerns around bias, plagiarism, appropriate use, and fears that AI will enable the spread of misinformation and cheating \u2014 issues that AI developers will certainly need to address \u2014 a growing group of educators are enthusiastically looking to a future of education that includes AI.<\/p>\n The challenge? Harnessing the immense positive potential while mitigating or avoiding harm.<\/p>\n Taking these concerns to heart, colleges and universities have begun developing their own Chat-GPT-like tools for faculty and students<\/a> to overcome concerns about intellectual property rights, equity, and privacy. The University of Michigan, Harvard University, University of California San Diego, UC Irvine, and Washington University have all created their own version of Chat GPT for use by students and faculty in the past year.<\/p>\n WashU GPT<\/a> was launched last year, spearheaded by Albert Lai, deputy faculty lead for digital transformation at Washington University. They, along with the University of Michigan and UC Irvine, built their AI tools using Microsoft’s Azure platform, which is based on open-source software available for free to mitigate equity concerns. Proprietary platforms, like OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT, on the other hand, impose upfront fees. What\u2019s more, having a closed system can provide faculty with peace of mind that their intellectual property remains protected. \u201cAny faculty member \u2014 including myself \u2014 would be very uncomfortable in putting a lecture and exams in an OpenAI model (such as ChatGPT) because then it\u2019s out there for the world,\u201d shared Ravi Pendse<\/a>, University of Michigan\u2019s Chief Information Officer.<\/p>\n AI is no longer just for computer scientists analyzing massive data sets and conducting predictive analytics \u2014 artists, designers, animators, musicians, video artists, and other creatives are now using it to enhance their creative processes<\/a> and sometimes even generate new work. While there is a push\/pull relationship between the technology and artists, leaders at top art institutions are starting to see AI as the next logical step in the digital revolution with the meteoric rise of visual AI platforms like DALL-E and Midjourney.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is as organic and logical as it gets, that an art institution is exactly primed to integrate this,\u201d shared Griffin Smith<\/a>, who teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design. \u201cRISD is the most punk art school, and I see this as one of the greatest punk opportunities we\u2019ve had.\u201d<\/p>\n When generative AI burst onto the scene, Jane South<\/a>, Chair of Fine Arts at the Pratt Institute, looked past the ethical and copyright concerns and hoped that this technology might be the next big thing for artists and creative industries. \u201cI thought, \u2018Goody, goody.\u2019\u201d South sees the dawning of AI as \u201cone of those moments \u2014 [like] when the printing press was invented, when photography came along \u2014 that art thrives on. Because it makes us think about what it is we do.\u201d<\/p>\n Some liken attitudes around AI to those that surrounded Photoshop when those powerhouse programs burst onto the creative scene. \u201cI think as soon as Photoshop became ubiquitous, faculty have been having conversations with students about Photoshop, and using it as a tool, and the difference between making all of your work on Photoshop and printing it out onto a piece of paper or projecting it onto the wall,\u201d said Smith. \u201cAll of those conversations, I think, are very easily transferable to AI.\u201d However, some creatives caution that there’s a big difference between what skilled creators can make using Adobe Creative Suite tools versus those without artistic skills or training.<\/p>\n South emphasized this point in a recent New York Times article<\/a>, saying previous technological inventions that critics feared might upend creative professions only ended up strengthening them. “Photography was supposed to be the end of art, and then the Xerox machine came along, and that was supposed to be the end of art, too.”<\/p>\n Increasingly, schools are looking at AI as a multi-use tool \u2014 much like Photoshop or the camera before it \u2014 and many now see that it qualifies as its own medium for making art. For some, a consensus is forming that the act of limiting the tools available to create art is a bad practice for artists and for creativity.<\/p>\nUniversities Build Their Own AI Tools<\/h3>\n
Art Schools Get Creative About AI<\/h3>\n
AI as a Tool \u2014 Not a Replacement \u2014 for Creatives<\/h3>\n