News
AI and creativity in the classroom
By William Ammerman, Adjunct Instructor
“The most surprising part? AI feels like an extension of my creativity, not something that’s replacing it,” Noah Weyne ’27 tells me as he works on a video game proposal in my “MEJO 121: Digital Storytelling” class. The students are currently using AI to help develop their game plots, main characters and visuals to illustrate key game elements. This isn’t about artificial intelligence taking over; it’s about students discovering how to collaborate with AI in new, imaginative ways. Holly Copeland ’27 remarks, “AI has allowed me to be more creative and take my ideas to the next level.”
These students are witnessing the future of creativity, where this new collaboration between humans and machines produces unprecedented opportunities. I’ve been working with AI professionally since 2013 when it was primarily a tool for marketing automation in the digital advertising industry. In 2019, I wrote “The Invisible Brand,” which explored how AI and machine learning were beginning to reshape society. But it’s this new wave of generative AI, with the emergence of tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney, that has captured the public’s attention — and taken my classroom to a whole new level.
Incorporating AI into my teaching began in the fall of 2022 when the students started using a beta version of ChatGPT in “MEJO 588: Emerging Technologies,” but now it’s spread into all aspects of my instruction. The goal is to get students to engage with the technology and to try solving real challenges with it because experience is such a great teacher. Julia Montgomery ’27 is trying out different prompts to achieve the desired result for her illustrations and tells me, “Sometimes the AI is nuanced and sometimes it is very straight to the point. It takes some tweaking.”
In the spring, I started the Optimus Awards and offered students a $100 daily prize for their best AI artwork. To showcase the award winners, I organized an exhibit at the Innovate Carolina Junction called “Is it Art?” and displayed their AI-generated works, challenging the public to rethink ideas about what constitutes art in the digital age. That question — Is it art? — is one artists have been asking for centuries. Consider the early days of photography in the 1800s when portrait artists rejected the camera as nothing more than a mechanical device. Today, photography is embraced as a legitimate artistic medium, and AI is on a similar path. AI is challenging our definitions of creativity, but like photography, it will eventually gain acceptance as a new tool for self-expression.
As these students continue to engage with AI in the classroom, they’re discovering that AI doesn’t limit them — it expands their potential and relates to them on an individual level. Ellie Bowman ’27 says, “It remembers our previous conversations and will refer back to other things that I’ve said.” That’s also a little scary. We’ve begun a conversation with machines that will outlive us. Grappling with those fears — of a technology that learns to anticipate the answers we are seeking — is also a vital part of this engagement in the classroom.
The future of creativity and problem-solving will inevitably involve collaboration between humans and machines. AI is changing the landscape of digital storytelling — and these students are leading the way, discovering just how powerful this collaboration can be. To prepare this generation for the future, it is imperative to expose their bright young minds to AI today so they can grow with it. And we’re just getting started.
