Image by Janus Rose, generated with Stable Diffusion
In preparation for the spring semester of 2023, New York University professor Winnie Song has done what had to be done before. She created her AI art guidelines for students.
Song, an assistant art professor at the Game Center at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, isn’t the only art teacher thinking about this. The rapid popularity of automated systems such as her Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and DALL-E 2 over the past year has left teachers at higher education institutions trying to find ways to communicate the topic to their students while learning the intricacies of AI. is. Art itself.
“My concern was that they would use AI generators to create mood boards or references to things that don’t exist in reality. We just set a policy to not recommend using it,” Song told Motherboard. “I never imagined it would get to the point where people would try to justify it as a craft.”
AI generated art The internet has been flooded ever since users started uploading selfies to generate elaborate images with nothing but written phrases and highly stylized portraits.tools are filled Strong backlash from many artiststhe AI system will later generate the derived image. Unauthorized ingestion of millions of original works from their creators.
But while the sophistication of AI generators raises serious questions about the nature of art and the creative process, art educators want their students to do more than type phrases into text prompts. It also presents a very specific dilemma for Submit as your own work.
“I think we’re trying to teach them to be tool independent and to remain agnostic instead of being godly and dependent on something to get a good looking job.” “You can learn this and think about it, but that’s not the only major thing to get you where you need to be.”
The way professors introduce AI art in the classroom varies by class and discipline. Song said he teaches a drawing class where students are supposed to draw inspiration from nature and the physical world. That’s her AI art her policy. Kurt Ralske, Professor of Digital Media and Chair of Media Arts at Tufts University Art Museum, takes a different approach.
“Personally, I have encouraged my students to explore this. I think we need to,” Ralske told Motherboard. “But it’s really late to really have a bigger discussion within the university about how these things should be handled.”
Doug Rosman, a lecturer in the Arts and Technology Department at the Art Institute of Chicago, also has students explore generators in his machine learning class. But in his professional practice classes, which are more career-focused courses, AI art and its impact on working artists is a separate discussion.
“In that context, the output of DALL-E and Stable Diffusion feels more menacing,” Rosman tells Motherboard.
Instructors aren’t the only ones thinking about AI art generator products. Art students are also grappling with the impact of AI art saturating the artist’s market and what it means for their careers.
Marla Chimbat, an art student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said, “It’s really disappointing how artists are embracing a crazy capitalist, hyper-technical culture.” I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s because of an aspect of the art world that I don’t agree with.”
None of the instructors or students at educational institutions Motherboard interviewed said their department or school had issued guidelines or policies for using AI art generators in their projects. Charlotte Belland, professor and chair of the animation program at Columbus College of Art & Design, said it’s up to individual instructors to set the parameters, depending on the topic or concept being taught in the class.
“As long as you establish what the parameters are, it’s an open forum to decide whether or not to use AI techniques,” Belland told Motherboard.
However, learning how these programs work and how to help students use them takes time and effort on behalf of instructors. If the instructor isn’t already familiar with machine learning or computer science in AI art, he’ll need extra work to navigate the way generators are shaking up the art world and understand the algorithms. There is a possibility.
“Teaching is hard. It’s hard work and it’s not well compensated,” Rosman said. “It’s not fair that a few people in Silicon Valley put this stuff out there. We just have to run around and pick up the pieces.”
Even if teachers don’t cover AI art in their classes, students keep thinking about how AI art generators are impacting the art world. Her Susan Behrends Valenzuela, an art student at NYU Steinhardt, said only one of her classes brought up the subject, but she was interested in further discussion in other classes.
“I wish we had talked a little more about it,” she told Motherboard. “But at the same time, I think my professors need to know a little bit more about that kind of technology in order to make it happen. I just don’t think that’s what they’re really focused on.”
Students are also thinking about how these tools can be used as part of their process. Julia Haymes, a painting student at the Rhode Island School of Design, says she tinkered with the AI generator Wombo for inspiration.
Hames told Motherboard: “I didn’t like anything, but maybe use it because the imagery is so silly and honestly it takes you into this uncanny valley that humans sometimes can’t even reach. I was able to do.”
Song, Ralske, Rosman, and Belland all said they never let students use an AI art generator in their projects without their knowledge. When students used AI in their projects, it was clear to instructors how to use it. Belland says being in a community with diverse perspectives and skills will help catch AI if a student tries to use it without the instructor’s consent.
“The good thing about the education community is that there are so many eyes on the project,” she said. “Even if a student makes the unfortunate decision to copy something in a very traditional way, plagiarism, it’s very easy to spot.”
When it comes to Song, she’s also less concerned with students appropriating AI-generated images as their own. She’s more worried about the students who haven’t been to class yet.
“In entrance exams, these freshmen come in from high school, from another life that we don’t know about,” she said. So I think it might be possible to build a portfolio out of thin air overnight.”