AI Generation: The Effects

In recent months, AI (Artificial Intelligence) generators have swept across the Internet. Ranging from goofy-generated images to art theft, AI has become an extremely divisive topic. Even in the writing community, there has been a new AI program that allows users to input a series of commands, and it’ll write a college-level essay for them. Many teachers and parents may wonder how these programs will affect schools and art? These questions can’t all be answered, but using relevant scenarios as a basis for learning could be monumental in the discourse around AI generation. Kate Sibole, the CNMS department chair at SMCC, had a personal account to share about AI-submitted work. 

She received AI-generated work in some of her classes during the 2022-2023 school year, she stated “It surfaced last semester with just two assignments.” She didn’t want to call anyone out, but after working with Photoshop on a daily basis since 1994, some alarms were going off in her head about the work. As a result of this, Sibole now requires that any student doing digital work submit a Photoshop file with all of their layers intact or they won’t receive credit. 

Sibole didn’t seem to be angry or upset, she seemed disappointed, but also intrigued. While she is going to have to edit curriculums for certain courses, she wants to explore these AI generators in other courses, stating “It is a really cool tool and we are the New Media department after all.” This doesn’t mean that her classes are going to be using them necessarily but they will be learning about the implications these programs can have on artists, copyright, and the entire creative process. Kate doesn’t want to see potential young artists fall out of love with art in favor of an easy and unproductive way. Many teachers can probably agree with this sentiment. 

These image-generating programs are still pretty fresh online, with a lot of this art being noticeably made by AI. Many users online have stated that these programs can’t draw hands, make textures look weird, and mess with autonomy, among a number of other flaws that no professional artist would’ve made in a piece. As of right now, it’s much easier to spot AI-generated art, but when looking at these pieces, look out for anomalies or watermarks, and check the comments on the posts and the account where it was posted. It’s possible to get scammed, whether for art commissions or schoolwork, so be careful online! 

When we talk about AI programs, not many people may entirely understand what they are or what they do. These AI programs are written to draw from references all over the internet to create an image, or art piece, or even write an essay based on a prompt. After discussing the possible implications of AI art submissions for school assignments, there is also another AI program that could cause issues with schoolwork: ChatGPT. 

ChatGPT is a program that works like other generation programs, you input a prompt and it writes an essay for you. This could possibly raise some questions and issues around schoolwork, computers, and even the Internet being used for schoolwork at all. On January 29th, 2023, it was revealed that in Australia there was a student who failed university for submitting an AI-generated essay for an exam. The school is even implementing a rule where students can’t take home schoolwork. A generation website made a college stop giving homework: talk about conflict. Whether these programs can be used for positive creation or not, it doesn’t erase the fact that this could become a problem down the road. While these programs have been used in moderation with limited incidents, it’s still a new situation for teachers or schools to tackle.