On Thursday, 21 August, we hosted a future-facing discussion about the role of AI in the arts, from how educators feel about this technology, to the changes it is forcing on the creative industries.
We were joined by Magda Romanska, a pioneering scholar at the intersection of theatre, digital humanities, and technology, and Reed Dickson, an educator and designer who regularly speaks on AI and the future of teaching, learning, and technology.
You can watch the free on-demand recording of this webinar here, or keep reading for our top takeaways from the event…
Ahead of this webinar, there was one topic that overwhelmed our Q&A box: copyright. ‘I occasionally consult on these cases’, Magda explained, ‘so I want to introduce people to the principles of copyright infringement’.
To paraphrase: ‘In academic copyright, you can copy a few lines from another book (depending on the country you’re in), and it’s only once you go over that, then you need to contact the publisher and ask for permission.
‘This is the problem with AI. If we think about it in terms of the current copyright, it does not infringe on the copyright of the people whose images and words it’s using, because it is working off of a huge database of language and text, films, and images. There is no mechanism to prove any one piece of work has been significantly copied.’
Magda's advice? To 'approach things on a case-by-case basis'. ‘Academic publishers don’t use AI work for covers’, she explained, ‘because even if the artists who were used have consented, they don’t know the output of these future court cases, and they don’t want to have to go back and change things’.
This discussion on copyright has been paraphrased. Hear the full conversation between Magda and Reed in the on-demand recording of this event.
This webinar is available to watch as a free on-demand recording here.
‘In theatre’, Magda explained, ‘we have a very similar problem to AI, the issue of mimicry. As theatre people, we are the medium of mimicry, and so we can make a contribution to this debate.’
‘Our mimicry is founded in philosophical and ethical discourse’, she added. ‘We mimic in order to answer bigger questions, and the problem with AI’s mimicry is that it can mimic in ways that are harmful or violent.’
Reed added that when it comes to theatre studies, adjusting the teaching approach is essential. ‘We are looking at a shift away from the essay’, he explained, ‘which is my favorite thing to teach!’.
‘We are going to have to shift based upon the technologies that emerge, so that we’re still aligning with course outlines, and still allowing students to demonstrate their knowledge, but in new ways.’
Explore theatrical innovations in this interview series led by theatre critic Lyn Gardner.
Throughout this session, Reed asked attendees to share their thoughts about AI in our live chat. His initial question, How are you feeling about AI?, saw answers ranging from ‘apprehensive’ to ‘amazed’, from ‘interested’ to ‘threatened’, and from ‘curious’ to simply ‘meh’.
How would you define your use of AI?
| Have you audited your class activities to imagine how AI might be used? | Have you gone on to revise an assignment after completing an AI audit? | Should students have the choice not to use AI in their studies? |
| Yes: 82% No: 18% |
Yes: 50% No: 50% |
Yes: 92% No: 8% |
Click here to access the full webinar recording (free) – or get in touch with our team to see how Digital Theatre+ can support your theatre department today.