As part of the People’s Art Fair, held this spring, interdisciplinary artist and educator Gaz Lawrence led a workshop and discussion entitled ‘Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) Destroying Human Creativity?’, exploring the topical conversation surrounding the use of artificial intelligence in creating artworks. Lawrence, who was also exhibiting at the fair, employs AI as a key part of his creative process and guided attendees through how machine learning can generate images from text, leading to the replication of human biases by algorithms.

This thought-provoking discussion opened up dialogue about the nature of human creativity and how generative art fits into a broader creative process. Attendees were also given the opportunity to explore the latest image-generating experimental model developed by Open AI and put their creativity to the test by engineering prompts for their own images.

Attendees made up their own prompts to produce the images below using AI model: DALL-E V.2exp
An avocado judging a gang of peas in a court case.
Matt Hancock being prodded with pitchforks in a hell scape inspired by Hieronymus Bosch.
Fashion shoot in the studio, medium height model with dark slicked back hair, wearing a grey pleated dress. The backdrop is teal and there is dramatic lighting.
Further experiments using Craiyon AI…
A text description of this very real Meszaros’ painting, ‘Blue’
Result 01
Result 02
Matt Hancock being prodded with pitchforks in a hell scape inspired by Hieronymus Bosch… again
… and again
… and again
Me (Benoit) sitting on a pile of gold

Lawrence founded the interdisciplinary education company The MoSAIC, launching on Wed 31 May 2023. The MoSAIC provides free resources and training to students and educators to explore the intersection between the sciences and the arts. The workshop provided at PRSC is also available for purchase by schools, with heavy subsidies for state schools serving a high proportion of children who receive free school meals or are in care. More information »

Extra Credit

Tech guru Jaron Lanier: ‘The danger isn’t that AI destroys us. It’s that it drives us insane’ // The Guardian

AI and the American Smile // Medium

★ Watch: The Cr[AI]tive Revolution – The Future of Art (Full Documentary)

★ Watch: AI, Ain’t I A Woman? – Joy Buolamwini

 Sony World Photography Award 2023: Winner refuses award after revealing AI creation // BBC

★ OpenAI supports trans rights!