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“Nobody phrases it this way, but I think that artificial intelligence is almost a humanities discipline. It is really an attempt to understand human intelligence and human cognition.” —Sebastian Thrun, 2013 (CEO of Kitty Hawk Corporation, and chairman and co-founder of Udacity, but first studied the humanities!)

Uses of AI in Fine Arts and Social Sciences

Prompts for Learning:

Prompts for Research and Writing:

Key Assessments in Fine Arts and Social Sciences:

Essays
Source Analysis/Case Analysis
Literature Reviews
Oral Presentations
Video, podcasts and other multimedia
Lesson Sequences and Lesson Designs

Example of student use of AI in FASS:

Brainstorming - using ChatGPT to brainstorm thesis statements and structure arguments for essays.
Reviewing grammar in writing - using Grammarly to review grammar on essays and reports.
Refining draft- using AI to provide conceptual feedback for you essay draft.
Generating study materials- using AI to produce questions and summary of concepts.
Ensure academic integrity. Always be sure to acknowledge the use of AI.

Discipline-specific considerations of generative AI

Humans excel in understanding the context of a conversation or text, which is essential for accurate translation and analysis, and can interpret cultural nuances, idioms, and metaphors that AI might overlook.
While AI can translate and produce text quickly, a human perspective is still critical to ensure the output text flows naturally and maintains cohesive tone and style.
Many AI tools are unable to access text-based works or copyrighted information. You, however, can find a book in the library that could be the perfect source for your essay!
AI doesn't have the ability to consult with experts in the same ways you can.

Real-world examples of generative AI in the discipline

In education, generative AI can assist in creating new teaching materials, such as lesson plans, questions for quizzes and exercises or explanations and summaries of concepts. See this article for a discussion of some of the many ways generative AI might transform teaching practices.
This article discusses how AI tools might transform research in the social sciences.
Shy kids, a creative group from Toronto, discuss their experience using OpenAI's Sora (a video generation AI) to create a short film.
Read how one news organization is using AI to transform their approach to producing news content.
This article discusses the opportunities and challenges presented by generative AI in the context of the creative arts.