Comm arts department discusses AI after controversial online use

Jack Glagola, News Editor

Eliza Eyre, Contributing Writer

The Department of Communication Arts held a roundtable discussion on artificial intelligence on Nov. 8 in the Commons Theater after controversy bubbled up over the usage of AI-generated pictures posted on the department’s Instagram page, according to a previous article The Commonwealth Times.

The roundtable featured a panel discussion and Q&A with experts in the field of artificial intelligence, showing how the technology can be put to use while exploring legal or ethical risks associated with its use.

Jason Bennett, associate professor and chair of the department, said he organized the talk to thrust the conversation about AI into a more public front.

“I know some sections of the university are really bullish on AI, they’re really kind of excited for it and pushing for it,” Bennett said. “And I know certainly many of our students have deep concerns about it, and many of them are excited too.”

Bennett said most of the feedback he received from students was positive.

“I know some students during the event were expressing, you know, they’re upset, and there’s a lot of different emotions on it,” Bennett said. “But after the event, I had gotten overwhelmingly positive feedback from people just for the fact that we had the event.”

Bennett said students’ main concern about the increasing ubiquity of AI is how it will impact their futures, especially visual AI systems like Midjourney or Stable Diffusion, which have stoked fears among illustrators that it will replace their jobs.

“They’re concerned about how it impacts their future, and they’re concerned about the ethics of it, they’re concerned about the legal side,” Bennett said. “And so if we’re going to force people to start using certain tools, that could be distasteful if they find that they’re unethical.”

Ellie Rushing, a fourth-year communications arts student who attended the panel, said she thought students were concerned about the future, but the panelists were more focused on the utility of AI.

“I was hoping to take away, like, what the school or at least VCUarts was going to do in the future about AI, but I didn’t get that,” Rushing said. “I think the next discussion happening in the spring will address that better.”

Rushing said she does not see any place for AI in the arts until ethical issues, like intellectual property, are resolved.

“I chose this major to learn how to develop my artistic ability, not so something else can do it for me,” Rushing said.

Panna Ashford, a third-year communication arts student who uses it/its pronouns and attended the panel, said the panel seemed to be more of an overview of AI in general rather than specifically generative AI.

“They did their best to have a neutral kind of perspective on it and that led to some discomfort among students,” Ashford said.

The panel felt hastily put together but the department did the best they could, according to Ashford.

“It simply needed more communication and more organization — and I think it’s good that it happened the way it did so we can move forward in the future,” Ashford said.

Ashford said it hoped there would be more time for questions and communication between the students and experts.

“That’s what I feel a roundtable needs, back-and-forth communication rather than cycling through host after host with no time to actually talk with each other,” Ashford said.

Ashford said AI does not belong in communication arts as the ethics have not been scoped out yet.

“It’s too new of a tool, and too many of them are not sourced ethically from artists that consent for their art being used,” Ashford said.