{"id":76,"date":"2026-05-22T08:37:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T08:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=76"},"modified":"2026-05-22T08:37:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T08:37:19","slug":"ai-and-art-collide-in-this-engineering-course-that-puts-human-creativity-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=76","title":{"rendered":"AI and art collide in this engineering course that puts human creativity\u00a0first"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

I see many students viewing artificial intelligence as humanlike simply because it can write essays, do complex math or answer questions. AI can mimic human behavior but lacks meaningful engagement with the world. <\/p>\n

Read more Exploring questions of meaning, ethics and belief through Japanese\u00a0anime<\/a><\/p>\n

This disconnect inspired my course \u201cArt and Generative AI,\u201d which was shaped by the ideas of 20th-century German philosopher Martin Heidegger. His work highlights how we are deeply connected and present in the world. We find meaning through action, care and relationships. Human creativity and mastery come from this intuitive connection with the world. Modern AI, by contrast, simulates intelligence by processing symbols and patterns without understanding or care.<\/p>\n

In this course, we reject the illusion that machines fully master everything and put student expression first. In doing so, we value uncertainty, mistakes and imperfection as essential to the creative process. <\/p>\n

This vision expands beyond the classroom. In the 2025-26 academic year, the course will include a new community-based learning collaboration with Atlanta\u2019s art communities. Local artists will co-teach with me to integrate artistic practice and AI.<\/p>\n

The course builds on my 2018 class, Art and Geometry, which I co-taught with local artists. The course explored Picasso\u2019s cubism, which depicted reality as fractured from multiple perspectives; it also looked at Einstein\u2019s relativity, the idea that time and space are not absolute and distinct but part of the same fabric.<\/p>\n

What does the course explore?<\/h2>\n

We begin with exploring the first mathematical model of a neuron, the perceptron. Then, we study the Hopfield network, which mimics how our brain can remember a song from just listening to a few notes by filling in the rest. Next, we look at Hinton\u2019s Boltzmann Machine, a generative model that can also imagine and create new, similar songs. Finally, we study today\u2019s deep neural networks and transformers, AI models that mimic how the brain learns to recognize images, speech or text. Transformers are especially well suited for understanding sentences and conversations, and they power technologies such as ChatGPT. <\/p>\n

In addition to AI, we integrate artistic practice into the coursework. This approach broadens students\u2019 perspectives on science and engineering through the lens of an artist. The first offering of the course in spring 2025 was co-taught with Mark Leibert, an artist and professor of the practice at Georgia Tech. His expertise is in art, AI and digital technologies. He taught students fundamentals of various artistic media, including charcoal drawing and oil painting. Students used these principles to create art using AI ethically and creatively. They critically examined the source of training data and ensured that their work respects authorship and originality.<\/p>\n

Students also learn to record brain activity using electroencephalography \u2013 EEG \u2013 headsets. Through AI models, they then learn to transform neural signals into music, images and storytelling. This work inspired performances where dancers improvised in response to AI-generated music.<\/p>\n

Why is this course relevant now?<\/h2>\n

AI entered our lives so rapidly that many people don\u2019t fully grasp how it works, why it works, when it fails or what its mission is.<\/p>\n

Read more Women in STEM face challenges and underrepresentation \u2013 this course gives them tools to\u00a0succeed<\/a><\/p>\n

In creating this course, the aim is to empower students by filling that gap. Whether they are new to AI or not, the goal is to make its inner algorithms clear, approachable and honest. We focus on what these tools actually do and how they can go wrong.<\/p>\n

We place students and their creativity first. We reject the illusion of a perfect machine, but we provoke the AI algorithm to confuse and hallucinate, when it generates inaccurate or nonsensical responses. To do so, we deliberately use a small dataset, reduce the model size or limit training. It\u2019s in these flawed states of AI that students step in as conscious co-creators. The students are the missing algorithm that takes back control of the creative process. Their creations do not obey AI but reimagine it by the human hand. The artwork is rescued from automation. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s a critical lesson from the course?<\/h2>\n

Students learn to recognize AI\u2019s limitations and harness its failures to reclaim creative authorship. The artwork isn\u2019t generated by AI, but it\u2019s reimagined by students.<\/p>\n

Students learn chatbot queries have an environmental cost because large AI models use a lot of power. They avoid unnecessary iterations when designing prompts or using AI. This helps reducing carbon emissions.<\/p>\n

The course prepares students to think like artists. Through abstraction and imagination they gain the confidence to tackle the engineering challenges of the 21st century. These include protecting the environment, building resilient cities and improving health.<\/p>\n

Students also realize that while AI has vast engineering and scientific applications, ethical implementation is crucial. Understanding the type and quality of training data that AI uses is essential. Without it, AI systems risk producing biased or flawed predictions.<\/p>\n

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Children living near oil and gas wells face higher risk of rare leukemia, studies\u00a0show<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An engineering professor teaches students to harness AI\u2019s flaws for creative expression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[280,58,96,281,264],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-art","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-engineering","tag-science","tag-uncommon-courses"],"yoast_head":"\nAI and art collide in this engineering course that puts human creativity\u00a0first - Pro Relocation Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=76\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AI and art collide in this engineering course that puts human creativity\u00a0first - 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