We keep hearing that ChatGPT is great at basic writing, but it's limited. It can't be creative. Tools like image and text generators, though, are proliferating, and while initially access was limited, they are open and available. There's talk of integrating them into programs like MS Word on a larger scale, and the first instance of that emerged this week. I vacillate between concern about AI tools replacing us, and curiosity about how they can spark ideas.
Meanwhile, today I attended a webcast from the Future Trends Forum about AI & some of its impact in education. It was fascinating, and the hour really flew by. Of course concerns about cheating arose, but they were quite secondary to the bigger-picture conversation around overhauling and improving education, use of class time, and assessment.
I have been part of dozens of conversations about this over the years. Meanwhile, I haven't seen much in the way of systemic change. But that's what's great about having courses I can experiment with. Every semester I noodle around with creative thinking exercises in classes, or try new approaches to get students to spark their own creativity. Some students really take to it, but others seem reluctant. I don't know if it's because it's so different than the text-heavy system they grew up with, or if they're self-conscious. Now I'm wondering: Can AI help me encourage creativity?
"A prosthesis for imagination: Using AI to boost your creativity," Ethan Mollick on his blog One Useful Thing (And Also Some Other Things), January 28, 2023
Among my readings from the past few days, this blog came up, and its focus on how we use creative thinking for idea generation caught my attention. The author put ChatGPT with a few brief, common creativity tests before requesting that it generate more complex lists. I like the idea of ChatGPT modeling creative thinking.
"AI-Generated Art is Already Transforming Creative Work," Kevin Roose for the New York Times, October 10, 2022
It's never been easy to be a creative professional, and AI isn't necessarily making it easier. But true to their nature, some creative people adapt and find creative ways to deal with the situation. Here's hoping that our ability to be creative allows us not just to survive, but thrive.
"Microsoft Word gets ChatGPT integration with new 'Ghostwriter' third-party add-in" Todd Bishop for GeekWire, February 1, 2023
One of my goals is to write a book (or 2 or 3 or 4), and I have a few started, along with additional ideas in mind. This piece was sent to me by one of my uncles, who has a great set of stories to tell. I'd love to help him write it, but here's hoping he doesn't hire this bot instead.
"Five creative ways people are using ChatGPT," Kristin Houser for Freethink, December 7, 2022
This came out days after the release of ChatGPT, and it's a cheerful gloss of a few uses that had gone awry. At the same time, it shows range-- some are very broad and conventional, and others highly specific. When I field-tested DALL-E in 2 classes last term, I noticed that one class of students gave it more specific prompts and got better results. That could be a useful lesson in a writing class.
"Google's new AI turns text into music,"Mitchell Clark for The Verge, January 28, 2023
While I cringe at the thought of AI being used to generate more of the terrible stuff we hear while on hold, I was again intrigued by the idea of being specific and detailed. Part of being creative is ideation. Sometimes that means generating ideas in quantity, but often it means getting detailed and descriptive-- a great mode of thinking. This tool plays off that.
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