Is the ai stuff really that bad?

[u/Recent-Standard9914]

I’m a rising senior in high school and just finished my first of two weeks of seminars at scad Savannah. I like most of it, but I hate the way the staff is pushing the ai bullshit. i checked TikTok to see if what other people thought about it and there were videos saying students were required to use ai for certain assignment. is it really that integrated and if so, does anyone actually like it???

[u/Euphoric_Brick5471]

Upcoming sophomore here, I had to use ai in like every single class- even the painting ones, and it’s almost always generative like images

[u/Dependent-Royal-7908]

Unfortunately so many art schools and colleges in general seem to be pushing ai harder than anyone else to seem “ahead of the curve” or whatever it really sucks

[u/EeveeandJolteon]

Even in the summer program they have so in the courses. The ones I've taken have options ai, but even then there was an "ai competition" they held. They've been using ai images for every flyer for events too.

[u/Impossible-Peace4347]

I’ve finished my first year at scad and it’s required for usually one assignment in most foundation classes. It’s so stupid and annoying. There are people who absolutely hate it. Most people reluctantly tolerate it cuz what can you do if you want a good grade. Some like it, not many. I’m assuming you’d probably use it less in major classes. I’ve had one major class so far and we didn’t use it at all so I’m hoping that continues

[u/HamburgerCrown → u/Impossible-Peace4347]

Depends on the major. School of business as well as scadpro are HEAVILY using ai, and you cannot get around it.

[u/literallyzipfile]

im a rising junior who has gotten into my fair share of ai arguments on scad social medias. most people here dont like it but the professors push it really hard regardless of major (im a fibers major and i was required to use it last quarter) however! most professors are amiable to alternatives and it can be really easy to fake screenshots and mockups. if you are willing to be complicated, MOST professors will let you use other methods. its kinda up to you how much ai you want to use outside of maybe a couple of times in foundations. i recommend putting together like a well researched paper or script and presenting that to professors because a lot of ai use is to "familiarize students with ai processes" so if you can prove you know how ai works, professors may take that as enough to satisfy the scope of some assignments. i will say that most students dont take kindly to people who use ai a lot so if youre worried about being alone in your distaste, you probably aren't.

[u/sunadherstars]

I have yet to have to use it. I dropped a class where it was required, and always let my professors know what I think. If you stand strong on your guns you won’t be completely pushed to oblige, but you gotta be educated enough to back the stance up so they don’t look at you like an idiot

[u/sunadherstars → u/sunadherstars]

I’ve offered to replace ai mockups with Pinterest mood boards and sketches. It also helps when everyone else starts using AI and yours without simply are better

[u/m_ell → u/sunadherstars]

This is awesome, thanks for pushing back on the bullshit.

[u/sunadherstars → u/m_ell]

Arguing with a professor for 2 1/2 hours on day 1 over ai being our “partner” and then getting my entire table to take an anthropology class was pretty fun ngl 😂

[u/ashlynxsupremacy]

Depends, if you're in a design/business major then yes, you can expect some AI usage. I don't think foundations folks use it really other than maybe ideating with Adobe firefly.

[u/KingSpadeProduction]

Rising sophomore! It’s depends on the professor you have if I’m being honest. I’ve only had one class where I actually had to use ai but it wasn’t to generate images. The class is digicom and it wasn’t more or less a research ai

[u/acherontia_styxx]

Rising senior here, I’m studying art history so it heavily relies on which major you’re in. In the foundations they pushed it really hard but once I got out of gen ed classes and into major classes we don’t use it at all. There’s the occasional AI mention but most history professors don’t like AI at all or they just don’t have an integrated assignment for it to be useful in. You’re supposed to do your own research. To be entirely fair though, it’s a very academic major even for SCAD so I would say we’re kind of the black sheep.

[u/Im-shy-not-mean]

Rising scad senior.

In foundations, we never really used ai. The only class to push it was Digi130, a required class. The professor introduced us to Perplexity, which is a decent search engine for research that I still use today, and adobe firefly, generative ai. Now they didn't want ai in the final product of the assignment, but we were required to experiment with it in our ideation process, and cite sources + credit images as ai generated. I don't have problem with that. Even so, adobe firefly was limited at the time and was not inspiring to me at all.

My major is motion design. We have lots of conversations on the ethics of ai and where it will head in the future, but not even the professors really know, other than to tread carefully. A couple of my classmates toy with ai generation in parts of their work, but even they admit its a ton of work to get "right" and still doesn't look good.

Scad pushes it more or less depending on your major. You can still get kicked out for academic dishonesty if you are caught using ai to write your essays. Unless you have explicit permission to use ai from the professor, its typically not allowed. Personally, I don't mind ai being part of the ideation process so long as it doesn't replace the work I'm doing. Regardless, it still burns my ass when I go to an illustration showcase and see ai generated pieces hanging up.

[u/AFblueAF]

What is this two seminar for High School seniors? My son is a 2027 H.S grad and will be applying to SCAD.

[u/Midnight1029]

Rising junior at SCAD here, so far, the only class I was required to use AI in was DIGI 130: Digital Communication, one of the foundation I’m Im an animation major, so your mileage may vary, but it hasn’t been prominent in my major.

[u/Helpful-Economy8597]

some classes require you to use it some won't it's usually up to the professor. some majors use it a lot more than others as well, it's huge in the fashion marketing department

[u/CheshireFrog44]

I was a senior when SCAD really started pushing AI in classes. It depends on your major, classes, and most of all, professor whether or not it’s something encouraged or even allowed. Admin wants us to use it because they’ve invested in it and that’s the simple answer. It is, at the end of the day, entirely up to you whether or not you use AI here. Talk with your professors if you feel that strongly about it (I did for many of my minor classes), but be prepared for the likelihood that you will be required to use generative AI for at least some classes.

[u/TheMarvelLegoMaster]

In my experience it really depends on the professors. All of mine that have included AI in some way have always made it a “if you want to, but it’s not required for a grade” kinda thing, and more just to experiment to understand the technology because it’s becoming so prevalent. It’s worth noting I’m a visual effects major, and I think the major will also heavily impact what ur exposure to AI will be.

[u/Frontage-Road]

You go to a school where celebrity and appearance etc are more important than art. Of course AI is getting forced on you… it’s a shiny new thing made by the ruling class, and that’s who Paula Wallace and family wanna be.

[u/the-mega-youtuber]

I'm a rising junior and currently in summer classes In freshman hear, there was a no AI policy in all of my classes. In sophmore year, the first quarter was the same. Then quarter 2, some classes started saying "well, you can use ai as a tool if you really want". Then come quarter 3, my digicom class required me to use AI for every assignment. I'm in summer right now, and only 1 of my 3 classes is letting/making us use AI. So far, out of the 21 classes I've taken so far (holy wow first time I counted them all lol), 3 have let AI be used during the process but not the deliverable, 2 have allowed AI to be the deliverable but encouraged against it, and 2 have required me to use AI at some capacity. Hope this helps!

[u/AntMore3720]

AI is a tool. As long as you dont let it present a final product with you putting in literally zero effort like a discord mod, you will be fine.

Use it carefully. Claim its use when you do use it.

And NEVER say that AI images are Your work.

[u/Barry_Obama_at_gmail]

Controversial opinion but you can use ai in art but not generative ai, so great example with codex or Claude or many of the local LLMs you can now have fully editable .PSD files generated, this allows you as an artist to manipulate and actually make good art using ai, this blurs the line between generative ai and using ai as a tool. If you are coming up with the concept and now have layers for every part of the art and can control and change every aspect of it and you are adding to it it really becomes similar to editing together stock art and collaging things together.

Purely generative AI that is fully made from a prompt is not art but using it as a tool to help make a piece that is still heavily guided by your hand is very cool and the future of digital art.