About The iPad Ad Or How Schools Can Celebrate And Protect Creativity
Imagine you have instruments and products of creativity from your school district in a room. From pre-K glue sticks and glitter to costumes and sets from high school theater. It’s all there: library books, musical instruments, photography class cameras, sculptures, student projects, posters, record players, so many things children enjoy. Now, imagine all of those items crushed by a hydraulic press. How would you feel?
Creativity In Peril
Speaking of feelings, artists feel threatened by “AI.” They believe their work is stolen for generative “AI” that could put them out of work.
"I was like, “Okay, let me research these guys and see what’s up.” What I found was disturbing. Basically these models had been trained on almost the entirety of my work, almost the entirety of the work of my peers, and almost every single artist that I knew. I spent various afternoons being like, “What about this artist? There they are in the dataset. What about that artist? There they are in the dataset.” To add insult to injury, these companies were letting users and in some cases encouraging users to use our full names and our reputations to make media that looked like ours to then immediately compete with us in our own markets." - Award-winning concept artist Karla Ortiz.
“When we talk about artificial intelligence, we have to understand where it's really from: It's human intelligence, [but] it's just been divorced from the creators.” - Comedian Sarah Silverman who is suing OpenAI.
Even the United Kingdom’s House of Lords voiced its concern and support for creatives, "We do not believe it is fair for tech firms to use rightsholder data for commercial purposes without permission or compensation, and to gain vast financial rewards in the process."
If the House of Lords’ support for exploited creatives exceeds yours, please reconsider it and read on.
Maybe tech companies are just fond of generative AI. Maybe they don’t want to replace creativity. Maybe they fully intend to get consent from creatives and give fair compensation.
The Ad
Then, this iPad ad dropped yesterday.
Trigger Warning: Dark, bleak, and creative instruments and products are crushed by a hydraulic press.
The Response
Apple avoided the scorn and contempt heaped on AI companies until this ad prompted widespread outrage.
Apple’s New iPad Pro Ad Sparks Outrage as Hugh Grant and More Slam Tech Giant: ‘The Destruction of the Human Experience’ by Todd Spangler in Variety.
The new iPad ad essentially flips AI-weary creatives the bird by Mike Pearl in Mashable.
Education expert Rick Wormeli voiced his horror:
In response to the director of the Harvard Writing Center, Jane Rosenzweig, Wormeli said,
People had many reasons they found the ad both anti-creativity and horrifying. For me, it was the paint over the sides of the press at the end of the video. It looked like blood at the end of a scene in a horror movie.
Impact On Education
What does this have to do with education?
Evidence suggests generative AI may harm creativity. According to researchers at the University of South Carolina,
We noted that while using ChatGPT improved students’ creative output individually, the AI ideas tended to be repetitive overall. This is likely due to generative AI recycling existing content rather than creating original thought…The current generation of AI, such as ChatGPT-3, lacks the capacity for defining the problem and refining ideas into something actionable. - Sabrina Habib, AI can help − and hurt − student creativity.
Jen Giffen voiced this concern when she said at 8:15 of this episode, “The more I use AI, the less creative I'm being.”
Action Items For Schools
If generative “AI” harms creatives and creativity, and if the iPad ad betrays that Big Tech thinks human creativity can or should be crushed, what can schools do to 1) celebrate and promote creativity and 2) show solidarity with creatives harmed by AI?
Here are some ideas:
Give students choice and the ability to create a product besides an essay or exam to show what they learned.
Promote the arts with as much zeal as you promote football.
Celebrate authentic human-created art at end-of-year or end-of-semester art gallery events.
If you do not hold art gallery events, fix that.
Synthetic image generators are a fix for a problem solved a long time ago by stock photos. Teach your students they have access to professional photography in Adobe Express and Canva and websites such as Nappy, Unsplash, and Pexels.
Apply The AutoDraw Standard when evaluating AI apps considered for classroom use. That standard is 100% data set transparency and contributor consent.
Teach students about the issue of “AI’s” impact on creatives and creativity. For example, Create Don’t Scrape is an advocacy group for artists, musicians, actors, writers, and models exploited by “AI” companies without consent.
Show middle and high school students the ad and ask for their reactions. Avoid showing it to any students younger than middle school. The video is too bleak.
Consider writing and assessment ideas in my post:
A Better Ad
Director, actor, and producer Reza Sixo Safai fixed the ad to celebrate and affirm creativity. Enjoy.
A Personal Reflection - Back To The Future
I conclude with a personal reflection. Hours after watching the ad, I saw Back To The Future The Musical. The vivid production was a stark contrast with the ad. It was a celebration of multiple forms of creativity.
Think about every song, book, article, film, television show, play, comedian, performer, or entertainment that brought you joy. Will schools affirm and support this joy? Will you?
Back To The Future focuses on two frustrated creatives, musician Marty McFly and writer George McFly. Are they analogous to creatives in 2024? Is Biff Tannen analogous to generative “AI?”
Continuing The Conversation
What do you think? What do you think about AI and creativity? What do you think of the ad? Comment below or Tweet me at @TomEMullaney.
Does your school or conference need a tech-forward educator who critically examines AI and pedagogy? Reach out on Twitter or email mistermullaney@gmail.com.
Post Image: Photo by Katya Ross on Unsplash.
AI Disclosure:
I wrote this post without the use of any generative AI. That means:
I developed the idea for the post without using generative AI.
I wrote an outline for this post without the assistance of generative AI.
I wrote the post from the outline without the use of generative AI.
I edited this post without the assistance of any generative AI. I used Grammarly to assist in editing the post. I have Grammarly GO turned off.
There are no generative AI-generated images in this post.
