ASU grad students showcase human creativity in AI

Instead of cramming for a final exam, ASU graduate students in DCI 691: Human Creativity in AI presented the custom GPTs they developed in an end-of-semester showcase on Monday, April 21 in the Creativity Commons atrium. From language learners to mood readers to historical virtual classrooms, these students have spent the spring semester exploring the intersection between creativity and advanced technology. 

“[The class] is very much about cognitive skills, specifically for creativity, but then on the other side, you have the AI component,” said Karina Luna, a PhD student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU. “Every week, we were talking about a different cognitive skill for creative thinking, and also giving updates on our individual bots.”

Luna created “Media Mentor,” a custom GPT meant to help users navigate propagandized media headlines; she is currently working on the beta version of her custom GPT.

“My bot combines a critical and creative thinking strategy more commonly used in STEM education,” said Luna. “I've seen it used for design thinking, and it combines that thinking strategy with media literacy. It guides users through critical analysis of textual media, and it addresses concepts like persuasion, bias, neutrality, sensationalism, fact checking, framing and misinformation.”

Luna is collaborating with Cronkite professors to integrate her agent into class curriculums surrounding fact-checking and media bias. Her agent has been used in assignments for at least one course.

About Human Creativity in AI

Course instructor Punya Mishra, director and professor, Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation, geared up his students for a public demonstration of their learning throughout the semester. 

“This is their final exam,” Mishra said. “I don’t want to give an assessment, which is disconnected from reality, so that’s why we did this exhibition.”

Human Creativity in AI, which is held in a nontraditional classroom environment — the Creativity Commons atrium — explores how generative AI can shape and transform creative practices through hands-on projects and experimentation.

“Creativity requires that openness, and from day one, that's what we’re trying to promote: complete transparency in what we do and what we're thinking,” Mishra said. “People sitting on couches, moving around, walking in an open space, other people can see what's going on — that's what school should be, public and open.”

Rethinking learning spaces

By collaborating with ASU Learning Experience, the course allows students to creatively experiment with the latest in AI technology in an unconventional setting.

Megan Workmon, director of learning experience design, highlighted the learning impact seen from the student showcase, thanks to the direct collaboration between the Learning Experience Design team alongside TechHub.

As the first “class in residence” course held in a nontraditional classroom, this pilot is being conducted to gather feedback and learning impact  to inform how future courses can take place in open spaces, such as the Creativity Commons atrium.

“We just want to make sure that we have learned what we needed to learn from this first pilot class to be able to offer the best experience for faculty,” said Workmon. “What we've heard from this particular group is that having a large open community space where they can work with people across disciplines has been really helpful for what they're building, how they're thinking, how they're getting feedback, and then activating the space as a place where they can find connection.”

The Learning Experience team is preparing to collaborate with more ASU faculty to run courses in the Creativity Commons in the upcoming fall and spring semesters, emphasizing the intersection of creativity and technology.

Shining the spotlight on creativity

The final showcase created a space for people to explore the intersection between human creativity and AI; the showcase included interactive student-designed stations and the students' semester-long custom GPT projects. These stations included “Build-a-Bot,” where attendees learned about system prompting, and “Vibe Coding,” where participants could discover how to code using natural language prompts, and more.

“The Time Traveler’s Classroom,” a custom GPT created by ASU master’s student Vaibhav Doifode, takes users on an educational trip through history. The GPT experience helps users navigate different historical eras, meet key historical figures and play a game in which the timeline has been interrupted due to a faulty time machine.

“This was an amazing experience that we were able to have with [students] from different fields and learn a lot,” Doifode said.

“I see a highly engaged community of learners who are showcasing quite proudly all the work that they've done over the past 12-13 weeks,” Mishra said. “It changes the way we think about school.”