Summary

This assignment constitutes the sixth of eight creative challenges that students complete for Writing with Artificial Intelligence, an undergraduate writing course. Setting aside the focus on developing critical AI literacies of the first five creative challenges, this challenge introduces the question of agency — of whether users of GAI (generative artificial intelligence) tools can be “masters of their technology and not its unthinking servants” (NEH).  

For this creative challenge, students experiment with AI tools to develop something novel — something they couldn’t imagine doing without AI, such as writing songs with Suno AI, creating videos with Adobe Express, or manipulating images with Adobe Firefly. After engaging in a qualitative, empirical research experiment to explore the possibilities of a new GAI tool, students reflect how these AI tools enhanced orconstrained their creative and cognitive processes.

Research Question – What is the Future of Human Agency

Researchers are questioning whether generative AI (GAI) may limit writer’s control over their composing and thought processes, and whether, more broadly, these tools will limit human agency, thereby changing what it means to be human. According to a Pew Research Center study — “The Future of Human Agency” Anderson & Rainie (2022), the major question confronting humanity with the rise of AI is, “What is the future of human agency?” The researchers surveyed 540 technology innovators, developers, business and policy leaders, researchers, academics, and activists. They found that 56% of respondents believe AI will limit human agency, expression, and creativity.

In a more recent study — “Experts Imagine the Impact of Artificial Intelligence by 2040” — Lainie and Anderson (2024) canvased 328 professionals and AI policy experts to learn their opinions about the influence of GAI tools on the future of society. They found these experts were very concerned that “Humanity could be greatly enfeebled by AI” — that AI may diminish human agency and skills. The experts Lainie and Anderson canvassed worry that AI could nearly eliminate critical thinking, reading, decision-making abilities, and healthy in-person connectedness, leading to more mental health problems. Additionally, they fear the impact of mass unemployment on people’s psyches and behaviors due to a loss of identity, structure, and purpose, warning that these factors, combined with a deepening of inequities, may prompt violence.

Writing Prompt

This is a two-part assignment:

1. Experiment with a GAI tool and medium that is new to you. For example, you can experiment with Suno AI for creating songs, Adobe Express for creating videos, or Adobe Firefly for creating and manipulating images, or play with CharacterAI to talk with historical figures. Wash, rinse, repeat this exercise multiple times, at least investing three hours in this experiment. This hands-on experience is designed to help you critically evaluate the implications of using AI in artistic fields.
2. Reflect on whether the AI tools they used enhanced or constrained their creativity and agency as communicators. Write a 400- to 500-word analysis of how these Generative AI (GAI) tools influenced your creative competencies. The central question to consider is: “Do you believe AI will augment or diminish human creativity and expression in artistic fields like music and visual arts?” Here are some sub-questions to help guide your reflection:
   1. Approach and Inputs: Describe your approach and the prompts or inputs you used when working with Suno AI and Firefly. What strategies were most effective in guiding the AI to produce your desired outputs? Were you satisfied with the results, or did they seem contrived or clichéd?
   2. Agency/Reconfiguring AI Outputs: Was your sense that you were driving the bus or was it that the AI was in charge? What strategies did you use to reconfigure the texts or visuals generated by the AI tools? How did you decide what to keep, modify, or discard from the AI-generated content?
   3. Benefits and Challenges: What were the benefits and challenges of using GAI tools compared to traditional solo creative work or human collaboration?
   4. Unique Creations: Did you find that these tools enabled you to create something you otherwise couldn’t? How did the AI tools push the boundaries of your creative capabilities?
   5. Felt Sense: How did your felt sense—a gut feeling or intuitive understanding of what felt right or wrong—play a role when using these tools? How did this inner sense guide your decisions and affect the outcomes of your creative work?

Recommended Readings/Videos

1. Suno AI: Language Learning with AI Songwriting”
2. “AI Music is Here”

Recommended Resources

Reviewing the following readings may ground your discussion in how these tools influence your creative processes:

1. The Writing Process – Research on Composing: Learn about scholarship on the writing process so you can understand how to break through writing blocks and find fluency as a writer, researcher, and thought leader.
2. Discovering Your Unique Writing Process: A Guide to Self-Reflection: Learn techniques for self-reflection to understand and enhance your personal writing process.
3. Problem-Solving Strategies for Writers: A Review of Research: Review research on effective problem-solving strategies in writing.
4. The 7 Habits of Mind & The Writing Process: Understand how the seven habits of mind influence the writing process and creativity.
5. The Secret, Hidden Writing Process: How to Tap Your Creative Potential: Learn about the role of embodied knowledge, felt sense, and inner speech in the creative process
6. The Ultimate Blueprint: A Research-Driven Deep Dive into The 13 Steps of the Writing Process: Delve into a comprehensive, research-driven exploration of the writing process.

Schedule

Step 1 – Research

1. Read Suno AI: Language Learning with AI Songwriting
2. Read The awful AI music that might take over the world 
3. Watch “AI Music is Here”
4. Watch How to Use Adobe Firefly 3 (& Why It’s the Only AI Image Generator You Should Use)
5. Watch, again, Lessig’s Laws that choke creativity
6. Check out the Creative Commons website, especially its various licenses

Part 2 – Create

1. Create a variety of songs using Suno AI, experimenting with different genres and lyrics. Please avoid random generation. Play, reiterate your prompts and outputs.
2. Upload some of your own photographs to Adobe Firefly and 

Part 3 – Collaborative Work

Meet in small groups to share your experiments

Grading Criteria for Your Analysis

Comprehensiveness: Does the reflection thoroughly cover the key aspects of the experience using AI tools like SunoAI and Firefly, such as describing the prompts/inputs provided, the outputs generated, what was kept/modified from the AI, and the overall process of collaborating with the AI system?

Insight: Does it provide specific insights into the possibilities AI tools offer for creative fields (e.g. augmenting ideation, automating aspects of the process) as well as challenges faced (e.g. lack of control, anthropomorphizing the AI)?

Impact on Creativity: Does it evaluate concrete ways in which using the AI tools enhanced, limited or otherwise impacted their personal creative expression and output for this project? Does it analyze potential broader implications, both positive and negative, that increased AI integration could have on human creativity? Does it consider how more open copyright frameworks, as advocated by Lessig, could affect the development and adoption of creative AI?

Clarity: Is the reflection clearly written and logically organized to explain their process, insights, and takeaways?

Brevity: Does it concisely convey the key points within the 400-500 word limit while providing enough detail and examples?

Coherence: Are the ideas about using the AI tools connected coherently throughout the narrative?

Flow: Does the writing have a natural, smooth progression that is easy to follow?

Inclusivity: Does it use inclusive language and consider diverse perspectives when discussing AI’s impact on human creativity and artistic expression?

Simplicity: Does it explain the concepts in straightforward language, avoiding unnecessary jargon?

Unity: Do all parts relate back to and reinforce the main purpose of reflecting on their experience using AI for this creative project?

Information Literacy: Does it demonstrate a clear understanding of how SunoAI and Firefly work based on the tutorials provided? Does it critically analyze the key points about AI songwriting/imaging tools?  Does it incorporate and analyze Lessig’s perspectives from the assigned TED Talk on restrictive copyright laws impacting creativity?

Step 6 – Submission Instructions – Deliverables

1. Upload to Canvas the links to your creative works
2. Upload to Canvas a .pdf version of your individually-authored reflection/analysis.