As the presence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) expands significantly in children’s lives of learning and play, it is critical that students learn to be conscientious consumers of AI from an early age. Though the need for democratizing AI education is often recognized, there are no current efforts to educate school-age children on the workings and implications of generative adversarial networks (GANs), despite their widespread use and misuse in media.
The goal of this curriculum is to teach middle school children about Creative Machine Learning techniques and how they can partner with AI to create art. We will explore tools and techniques such as Neural Networks and GANs across various forms of media, such as text, images, music, and videos. We frame this curriculum as an exploration of creativity, such that children’s creative and imaginative capabilities can be enhanced by innovative technologies. Further, we aim to have discussions throughout the workshop to highlight important ethical issues around generative AI, such as ownership of art and generation of hyperrealist fake media. This course is meant to be hands-on and encourages the explorative creation of art with and without AI tools. Throughout this course, students will have discussions around open-ended questions such as:
These questions will allow them to reflect on how machine art differs from human created art, as well as the role that machines play in technology-guided creation.