Fall 2025 Course Topic: Artificial Intelligence and Art: What does it mean to be Creative in a New Digital Era?

This survey course explores emerging technologies used to produce and consume popular cultural artifacts. Through individual and team-based learning activities, students will analyze and interact with information and communication technologies across popular culture genres. The course content and the assignments are directed at helping students to both create and critique digital media in ways that demonstrate their understanding of, engagement with, and reflections upon the relationships among people and organizations, emerging technology, and popular culture. Students will also design and produce digital media that demonstrate their ability to integrate and synthesize central concepts and themes from the course. 

In the fall 2025 semester, IST 130 will take a deep dive into the emerging questions, opportunities, and challenges related to Generative AI. 

• Who owns the art co-created with a machine?
• When does AI become the artist?
• Do we view art created with the aid of AI differently?

In this section, you will engage with these questions and more. Identify, critique, and create AI-generated artistic content (art, writing, music, and games), and engage with the ethical questions that arise as a result ever-improving generative AI.

This is an introductory course in IST, and meets the requirements for a General Education course in Arts (GA). This course is delivered with significant student and instructor interaction with computers and digital media. 

• General Education: Arts (GA)
• GenEd Learning Objective: Critical and Analytical Thinking
• GenEd Learning Objective: Integrative Thinking