Houghton, Michigan (WLUC) — Michigan Institute of Technology students had the opportunity to learn about and try out the AI Generation Program at a special workshop on Wednesday.
The AI Art Workshop is part of the university’s third Art In Silico exhibition and event series. The workshop was led by Evan Lucas, a research scientist at the university’s Computing and Cyber Systems Institute. Participants first learned about the history of generative models and how they work before trying these models for themselves.
“There’s a lot of interest in promoting new media, new modes of communication,” Lucas said. “Apart from making images, people are making videos. People are making audio. There are so many different directions that this can go.”
Lucas sees AI generators as a tool and says that while they can be used to make art, they don’t create art himself. He says “many creative people work hard on this,” and encourages interested parties to read it. He also says that the strengths and weaknesses of AI art are deep discussions, just as deep as the art itself.
“There is a lot of ethical debate about using existing art to create new art,” Lucas continued. “There are many questions about copyright and what can be used to train these AI models in legal and ethical ways.”
In his presentation, Lucas also said that the use of these generators would not come without costs, such as environmental costs for water or energy or potential company layoffs.
“One direction is the idea of making deepfakes and fake videos,” Lucas added. “They’re becoming more and more convincing. I have a few questions, but do I need to put some control on these? Do I need to do something to make it clear that these are being generated?”
Check out our list of all upcoming events on the Horton High School Superior Maker Fest on Saturday from noon to 5pm. Please click here.
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