Art and AI: Educators must find ways to ease students' fears

Artificial intelligence is a new art-marking tool and an opportunity for the next generation to redefine the role of the artist.

- Wolfgang Muench

Ask ChatGPT, "Should arts students be concerned about artificial intelligence (AI)?" and the response is, "Yes, arts students should be concerned about AI."

Some reasons for concern, ChatGPT goes on to elaborate, include how AI will change creative processes, its impact on job markets, and ethical and philosophical questions around its usage.

When the AI itself readily affirms your doubts, there's something almost fatalistic about it. At the same time, reading this response, I'm reminded that none of these doubts or ideas originated with ChatGPT. Everything here echoes what I have heard before from artists and students, and ChatGPT, in fact, has not produced or synthesised any new arguments.

Yet, through ChatGPT's reply, it is clear that there are fears among arts students about AI, especially that it could replace human artists.

However, AI's impact on the way we live, work and create is already considerable. The stance taken by educators in Singapore and elsewhere is that AI is here to stay, and as educators it would be irresponsible not to prepare students for a world with AI.

It's time to look at AI as a catalyst for evolution. The next generation of creatives stands at the brink of great opportunity for transformation because of it. The role of the arts educator is to guide them in making the most of this opportunity.

LIVING IN A WORLD WITH AI

AI has disrupted the art world, especially with generative AI, which includes large language models like ChatGPT and image creation tools such as Midjourney and Stable Diffusion. These technologies have sparked debates on authorship, intellectual property and authenticity. The education sector is no exception.