Unbelievably Creative: why young people are cautious about AI

This paper explores young people’s (N=138) views and concerns about using AI tools for creative tasks, in the context of recent work from creativity researchers about AI. Very few of the young people were wholly positive about co-creation with AI on creative tasks, with many raising concerns about the impact of AI overuse on their learning and skills development. The young people valued human skill and effort, and the emotional experience of participating in creative projects; they did not want this to be eroded by AI. There was some debate about what constitutes acceptable AI usage in schools, with some young people considering the use of AI to be "cheating", while others found AI usage acceptable particularly in the early stages of the creative process. Young people raised concerns about copyright violations, harmful AI-generated content and potential negative effects of AI on society. The paper argues that learners could benefit from using responsibly designed AI tools for creative tasks, assuming that the tasks are designed to maximize personal creativity benefits while minimizing potential harms to the individual and society as a whole. It offers suggestions for educators about how this could be achieved.