October brings two more guests to the AI Talk webinar series, hosted by Bao Johri, vice president of information technology and chief information officer at Fresno State. This month’s first guest was Ahran Koo, associate professor of art at Fresno State.
The webinar series, which aired on Oct. 2, featured Koo discussing, through the lens of contemporary artificial intelligence (AI) artists and scholars, how AI is transforming the curriculum and the classroom experience.
Koo focuses her research on promoting the potential of art as a means of fostering cultural and societal understanding. Recently, she narrowed her focus to investigating the interplay between artificial intelligence and education within the realm of contemporary art.
“I’ve always been fascinated by how technology offers us another way to convey our ideas in a unique way, and expand our creative possibilities,” Koo said.
Koo’s interest in AI started organically in 2005, when she was teaching a digital class in high school. She realized then the potential of AI but also its limited access.
In 2021, she collaborated with art education colleagues from other institutions to explore the use of AI.
“The funny thing is that ChatGPT wasn’t released to the public yet,” Koo said. “Not many people talked about AI at that time.”
The collaboration led her to initiate a virtual lecture series about three years ago, where she invited globally renowned artists and scholars.
Koo’s involvement in creating community art enabled her to help give a voice to marginalized communities, and she discovered the value of AI in amplifying their voices.
“I don’t see AI as a standalone tool but another medium and potential collaborator,” Koo said.
However, she warned that AI requires critical engagement and we need to be aware of how AI algorithms and data are trained, as well as the possible effects on the community involved.
She said that AI is definitely prompting a re-evaluation of our traditional, artistic and educational practices. For example, in the visual industry, artists and designers are using an AI image generator as an effective tool for their concept development.
Koo said that she wants students to be aware of the potential and limitations of AI, while paying attention to responsible and ethical use of AI.
“I can envision more opportunities for Fresno State to establish cross-national AI collaborations,” Koo said.
