AI, Art, and Education

I was talking to some people about my work, and one of them raised the question of whether or not using AI art was stealing from legitimate artists.

I think this topic is really fascinating because I love both art and computers. I always was a storyteller, even as a kid I wrote books for fun. But when I write, I see the pictures or the movie in my mind. AI gives me the chance to express stories that I never could before, because the required skillset is verbal. You have to get good at clear descriptive writing that follows some specific parameters.

I can do this easily so I found a tool that can allow me to play as an artist and a writer of picture stories.

I understand why people can feel that training AI on artists’ work without compensating - or even getting permission from - those artists is problematic. The intellectual property of a lot of people is mixed into this algorithm, and as such is used as the basis for what is created.

As far as I understand, this went to trial in the USA. A woman published a book on Amazon that had AI generated images. And as far as I understand, the ruling was that people can copyright books - the overall style of the book, but not the images themselves. Individuals can’t really own AI art.

That makes sense to me. And that’s part of the hazard of investing yourself into AI as a creative medium. The work you create isn’t really yours.

However, I’m okay with this because it’s not really my goal to make serious art. I’m not an artist. I can barely draw stick figures. My son and I drew this together. Can you tell which part is mine and which part is his? No you can’t. They’re barely distinguishable. 

But the beauty of AI art is the accessibility of it. You can sit down with a 3 year old and make really funny stuff that’s about their life. You can’t do this with hand drawn art. It wouldn’t exist. I could neither draw books for my son with 3 year old skill level of drawing, nor am I so rich that I could pay a professional artist to draw it for me.

I knew people in the past who were such artists. And actually I would drool at the thought that I could get someone to illustrate my ideas, because I had a lot of ideas but no ability to illustrate. And it just wasn’t viable. Everybody has to go after their own interests.

So the stuff I’m using AI to create isn’t a replacement for traditional art. It’s a whole new thing. In particular, I want to use it for teaching. The fact that you can customize it for kids and educational purposes, and teaching, and as a learning tool and a way to practice English and your writing and storytelling, and to let your creativity flourish. That’s really amazing. 

I have been working as a tutor, and I’ve seen first hand that the conventional way of teaching kids to write makes them hate it. Kids come to my house, sit down at the desk, and it’s my job to get them good at writing essays and taking grammar tests in English, and then their mind goes blank as they fall into a dissociative state. Actually this is a symptom of trauma. People dissociate in order to protect their minds from pain. 

Because they really hate the way they are taught to write with drilling.

So I took out the AI image generator and taught him to write prompts with clear, structured descriptive language. To make an image based on his imagination. 

He suddenly lit on fire with excitement. Before, he couldn’t think of anything to write, the practice was dull when it was about the grammar. Now it was about his art. He threw together a paragraph and we worked together to iron out the clarity of his sentences so the computer could understand it. His idea was unfinished, so I helped fill in the blanks with something the AI could understand.

We created this. Then he wanted the character to look more like JoJo, but talking about a copyrighted character triggered the censorship program in Copilot, so we practiced describing JoJo in a neutral way to get the same appearance without triggering the censor. And we did.

It was the most fun I’ve ever seen him have while studying English. He’s not the only one. I’ve seen other kids love learning because they can do it with art.

I am contemplating how to better integrate learning with AI in a healthy and positive way. And what else I could write about that would be really beneficial for people.