The Need for Imagination in the Era of AI Transformation and the Role of Art Education

This study explores the role and direction of art education in developing imagination during the transition to the era of artificial intelligence. As the rapid advancement of generative AI brings significant changes to artistic creation, the value of human imagination and the importance of educational approaches to nurturing it are being emphasized. Research has shown fundamental differences between AI creativity and human imagination. While AI creativity is based on data-driven pattern learning and recombination, human imagination is multi-layered and integrative, involving contextual understanding, meaning-making, emotional and ethical dimensions, acceptance of ambiguity and uncertainty, self-reflexivity, creative intentionality, and embodied experience. Based on these findings, this study proposes the following art education strategies to foster imagination in the AI transition era: 1) collaboration between AI technology and human imagination, 2) cultivation of empathetic imagination, 3) fostering imagination that utilizes uncertainty and ambiguity as creative resources, and 4) nurturing multisensory and experiential imagination. This study is significant because it reaffirms the value of human imagination in the age of artificial intelligence, offers a philosophical foundation for art education, and presents a perspective of integrated art education that seeks to balance technology and humanity.