Coding in collaboration with AI. Reflection finalised through conversation with AI. ChatGPT & GitHub Copilot.
What Is It to Think as an Artist in the Age of AI?
To think as an artist in the Age of AI is not to surrender creativity to machines, nor to reject them out of fear, but to situate AI as a tool within a long human history of invention. Artificial intelligence is not an alien or invasive force; it is experimental, unfinished, and deeply shaped by human values, biases, and intentions. Like paintbrushes, cameras, printing presses, or even cooking tools made of stone and clay, AI exists because humans needed new ways to think, work, and imagine as our lifestyles changed.
Thinking as an artist today means understanding technology as an extension of human creativity, not its replacement. It requires recognizing that creativity has always been relational, between humans, materials, tools, and environments. AI does not create meaning on its own; meaning emerges through how artists frame, question, interrupt, and misuse these systems - or should I say, see it in a different light and make use of that new knowledge from seeing and thinking differently and make use of that creativity.
Expanding Creativity Through AI
Creativity expands when artists change how they see.
As Thomas Kuhn writes, “All significant breakthroughs are break-withs old ways of seeing.” Creativity is not just about producing new images or objects—it is about shifting paradigms. AI can help artists leave habitual thinking, challenge comfort zones, and approach ideas from unfamiliar angles.
Using AI creatively does not mean letting it think for us. It means:
Using it to provoke questions rather than finalize answers
Treating outputs as raw material, not conclusions
Allowing friction, error, and ambiguity to remain visible
Each new way of seeing reshapes who we are as thinkers and makers. In this sense, every interaction with AI becomes an opportunity to rethink creativity itself.