angel

I go to a uni that specializes in performance and digital arts (I have gone down the digital arts route). Unfortunately, due to it being somewhat new (founded in 2019) everything is really unorganized, for example, this particular comic is based on an experience I had during a game design class which was taught within a less than 10 week period, after which we were expected to make a small game and write a gdd (game design document) before the start of the exam period. Said task was extremely difficult considering non of us had any coding experience prior and a lot of people had no artistic background either. Because of the difficulty, the professor, not only suggested but highly encouraged the use of ai for the game (excluding the gdd). I am so anti ai the mere idea of using it makes my blood boil, so I had no choice but to thug it out and somehow make something with the very limited knowledge that I had gained from the lessons, YouTube tutorials and forums. My end result was crude at best but it was honest work (especially considering that I was one of the people who did the assignment alone). Day of the presentation came and I realized that (other than 1 or 2 other teams) everyone else had used ai excessively. I ended up getting the second lowest (passing) grade in the class, to say I'm a little salty would be an understatement but I won't dwell on it considering the use of ai was permitted.

This happened last semester. This semester, the usage of ai within the lessons has gotten so much worse it's actually insane. As of writing this I can only think of one lesson in which the teacher ISN'T pushing for the use of ai (out of the 6 that I follow). It's so insane to me how a university that calls itself a department of fine arts would end up cutting so many corners by using ai. It has reached a point where parts of the subjects are left untaught because "you can just do that with ai", like ??? No, I don't want to do that! I came here to learn those subjects and you, as a professor, should teach it despite the ease ai might offer to those that don't really gaf. This is the department of digital arts, not "how to use generative ai 101". I would absolutely love to know how they taught those lessons the years before 2024-2025 when ai wasn't this advanced, considering they act as if it is an impossible task to do without it.

The worst thing with this whole situation is that, students like me, end up getting left behind just because we actually want to learn what we signed up for. Morality of ai usage aside, using ai really does us no favors in the long run. What if there is a problem with the ai generated results that we are unable to fix due to our lack of knowledge within a future professional setting?

Forgive me for the length of the rant.