Course description
‘I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing. Not for AI to do my art and writing, so that I can do my laundry and dishes’ (Joanna Maciejewska, 2024). This widely circulated quote captures growing unease about the potential displacement of human intellectual labour and creativity by AI. With the rapid deployment of generative AI in the arts, many creative professionals worry that this technology will be especially disruptive for the creative industries (image, video, new media), as well as for how we reward creativity in education and academic research. Simply put, generative AI is showing signs that it can perform a wide variety of creative tasks, often with speed, accuracy, and alacrity. This creates a problem because many still see creativity as a key capacity of human beings, equally as distinctive as rationality or the capacity for political participation. How should we respond to the seemingly creative capabilities of generative AI? Should we take these creative abilities seriously? What ethical issues must be dealt with in using generative AI in creative work? And looking in the other direction, does generative AI have anything to teach us about human creativity? If so, what can we learn from it? This course will explore how generative AI changes our concept of creativity, and how future iterations of this technology may transform how creativity is regarded as a fundamentally human characteristic.
Day 1 begins by exploring how philosophers understand creativity, as well as how generative AI shows signs of challenging this. This will be followed (Day 2) by an exploration of the key philosophical issues generative AI raises for creativity. Day 3 will introduce practitioners who use AI creatively, including the computer scientist, Iyad Rahwan, and the new media artist, Helena Nikonole. The final two days explore how these ethical issues should govern the use of generative AI (Day 4) and for the future of work (Day 5). During the course, participants will write an abstract on a potential paper on the philosophy of creativity and generative AI (assessed), as well as writing a plan for a future academic article on this topic (optional).
Learning Outcomes
Participants will understand the following topics:
- How generative AI can be deployed creatively in the arts, education, as well as the exact sciences.
- How philosophical notions of creativity can aid understanding what is new about the powers of generative AI (and what is not).
- How using generative AI in the arts, education, and academia requires addressing serious ethical questions.
- How the future development of generative AI may cause widespread social disruption.
Assessment
Participants will be assessed in the following ways:
- Attendance.
- Writing a one-page abstract for a future article on the topic of creativity and generative AI.
Optional Takeaways
Participants will finish the course with the following (optional) takeaways:
- A plan for a future article on the topic of creativity and generative AI.
- Academic coaching from multiple experts on how to write an article on creativity and generative AI.
- Guidance on how to submit their article to top-tier academic journal.
Additional information
- Duration: 5 x day-length sessions
- Participants: OZSW/4TU.Ethics PhD & ReMa students
- Location: TU Eindhoven
- Credits: 5 ECTs for seminar participation and writing a one-page abstract.
- Dates: 22-24 and 27 and 28 January 2025
Registration
PhDs can register via this form.
Master students and Postdocs can register via secretariaat@ozsw.nl
More information
More information can be found at the website of the OZSW.