đź“Ś Overview
This session was part of the course Intercultural Perspectives on Information Literacy and Metaliteracy (IPILM, Winter Semester 2025/26) and was presented at the IPILM Conference on December 19, 2025.
It examined how artificial intelligence is transforming the production of digital media and which ethical challenges arise from this development. The focus was on authorship, responsibility, bias, trust and the future role of human creativity.
🎥 Screencast
The contribution was presented as a screencast designed as an Open Educational Resource (OER).
The screencast combines scientific research with practical insights from artists and case studies.
đź“š Scientific Foundations
The analysis builds on interdisciplinary research on AI and ethics in digital media:
- Generative AI challenges traditional ideas of creativity, authorship, and originality (Das & Kundu, 2024).
- Current copyright law struggles with AI-generated works because it is based on human authorship (U.S. Copyright Office, 2025).
- AI systems can reproduce social bias, rely on large-scale data extraction, and raise privacy concerns (Al-kfairy et al., 2024).
- Deepfakes and synthetic media threaten trust, journalism, and democratic processes (Karnouskos, 2020).
- AI can widen existing digital inequalities while simultaneously lowering barriers to creative production (Lutz, 2019).
🖼️ Case Study: Théâtre d’Opéra Spatial
The artwork Théâtre d’Opéra Spatial by Jason Allen was created using Midjourney and awarded at a Colorado State Art Fair.
- The artwork sparked global debate about authorship, originality, and fairness.
- Copyright protection was later denied due to insufficient human authorship.
- The case illustrates the gap between technological innovation and existing legal frameworks.
🎤 Qualitative Interviews with Artists
Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with artists from different disciplines and regions.
Key insights include:
- AI is widely perceived as a tool rather than a replacement for human creativity.
- Ethical responsibility depends strongly on how AI is used, not solely on the technology itself.
- Major concerns include misrepresentation, bias, copyright uncertainty, and deepfakes.
- Some artists view AI as an additive creative partner, while others emphasise the irreplaceable value of the human hand.
The full interviews are included at the end of the following screencast:
đź’¬ Discussion Highlights
The discussion focused on the future of art in the age of AI:
- Will AI replace human-made art or function as an additive tool, similar to photography?
- Who bears responsibility for ethical AI use: artists, developers, platforms, or regulators?
- How can audiences distinguish AI-generated from human-created content?
Emerging technical solutions such as C2PA (Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity) standards were referenced as potential mechanisms to support transparency and verifiable content provenance.
đź“„ Session Report
A detailed written session report is available here:
đź”— References
Das, S., & Kundu, R. (2024). The ethics of artificial intelligence in creative arts.
Al-kfairy, M., et al. (2024). Ethical challenges and solutions of generative AI.
Karnouskos, S. (2020). Artificial intelligence in digital media: The era of deepfakes.
Lutz, C. (2019). Digital inequalities in the age of artificial intelligence.
U.S. Copyright Office. (2025). Copyright and artificial intelligence, part 2: Copyrightability.