My robot wrote a thing! Creativity in the age of Gen AI

Talk Description
Authors are using AI to overcome writer's block. Artists are experimenting with it in their work. Students are turning to it for creative projects, while companies are rapidly weaving it into the software we use every day. As AI is moved from research labs and corporate offices to a common part of the creative process, it's changing how we make art and our relationship with creativity itself.

Technology and artistic practice have evolved together, from the first cave paintings to the printing press, photography, and software. But something about this moment feels different. Join Ben Miller as he explores what this new technology means for creativity, who gets to create, and what our artistic future might look like with the newest tool on the block: Gen AI.
Bio
Dr Ben Miller is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Canterbury and Director of the Digital Screen Programme. For more than 20 years, he has explored how new technologies shape the ways communities create, share, and interpret stories. His research spans games, digital culture, online communities, human rights, artificial intelligence, and storytelling. Working with researchers, cultural institutions, government agencies, and industry partners, Ben has investigated how technology can be enlisted ethically, equitably, and in service of creativity, community, and safer online spaces. His current interests focus on the opportunities and contradictions of generative AI, and what it means for creativity, culture, and human expression when machines become collaborators in the creative process.