CDE explores “Human Creativity in an AI World” in GU Humanities Initiative event

On Wednesday, February 14 in Copley Formal Lounge, Professor of Technology, Ethics, and Society and CDE Director Laura DeNardis and colleague Susanna Lee, professor and chair of the department of French and Francophone Studies, explored questions about the nature, history, and future of human creativity in a world in which AI is becoming ubiquitous. The energized and engaged audience guessed at the authorship of human- and AI-authored visual and textual artifacts and, with the presenters, explored questions about the creative process, the nature of authorship, and the ethical implications of the use of AI in artistic endeavors.

Prof. Nicoletta Pireddu introducing Prof. Susanna Lee (l) and Prof. Laura DeNardis (r).

The panelists were introduced by Nicoletta Pireddu, inaugural director of the Georgetown Humanities Initiative and director of the Global and Comparative Literature Program. The event was sponsored by the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics and the Center for Digital Ethics and was part of the Georgetown Humanities Initiative Series “What Makes Us Human in the Age of AI.”

Using these programs for the first time can be breathtaking, both because these applications mimic human communication and arts so well but also because of the flood of questions about what this means for society. . . . Generative AI is becoming a new tool of artistic creation but also becoming a new space in which values conflicts are mediated and public interest issues are unfolding.
Laura DeNardis, professor of Technology, Ethics, and Society and director, Center for Digital Ethics

The writings of Foucault and Barthes seem to auger the introduction of Generative AI, but at the same time, Generative AI gives the lie to the notion of authorial irrelevance. Art and literature are facing some strong enemy forces: speed, volume, mechanical reproduction, and suspicion. Taken together, these stand in the way not of human creativity, but of human response and openness to it.
Susanna Lee, professor and chair of the department of French and Francophone Studies

The event is the first collaboration between the Center for Digital Ethics and the Georgetown Humanities Initiative. On April 8, the two centers will co-host another event in the “What Makes Us Human in the Age of AI” series with a book talk by CDE core faculty member Cal Newport, who will be speaking about his new book, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout.