Artificial intelligence has become one of the most controversial topics in creative fields, especially among artists and designers who are still figuring out how much AI should be involved in the learning process.

The community college graphic design student in this story reports that her class is becoming awkward because the professor is telling them they need to use AI to generate ideas that will be used on their projects. He claims that artificial intelligence is the future and that it is an essential tool for graphic design.

Many of the students brought up their concerns, but they were dismissed. So, she and her friends are thinking lying to the professor and doing the project their own way. Of course, this comes with its own set of moral issues.

Keep reading for all the details.

AITA for suggesting my classmates and I do an assignment a different way without telling our professor?

I, 20F, am taking a graphic design class at a community college.

So, far the class has been fine, but we haven’t been doing much actual graphic design or digital art so far. It’s been mostly small stuff on paper that haven’t amounted to any actual learning so far.

It feels like the work we’ve been doing isn’t college-level, and is more so elementary/middle school stuff.

I can see how this would be frustrating.

Our professor also seems to have a habit of changing his instructions, sometimes after we’ve already started an assignment, and we usually have to ask him a lot of questions before we start.

I didn’t mind because this is our professor’s first year here. I

t’s a small class and there’s only 5 or 6 people in the class including myself.

This does seem like a pretty simple project for college level.

Recently we did a project where we were each given a piece of paper, and divided it into 16 squares. We then came up with a title for a drawing with a name and an adjective, i.e. “Chatty Kathy.”

Then we would pass the paper to our classmate, and they would write a name. We kept passing it along until all the spaces were filled.

Then we had 10 seconds to draw a quick doodle of “Chatty Kathy,” and pass it on to someone else for them to do a 10 sec drawing in another square, and so on until all our papers were filled.

I enjoyed this assignment and liked how fast paced it was. Other people were frustrated, but I guess that makes sense when you only have 10 seconds.

AI is going to be an important tool in graphic design in the future.

Now he wants us to do something similar, but with AI. He wants us to use AI to come up with the names and adjectives for us to use, and to write those down.

We aren’t submitting AI pictures or anything, so it’s not as bad as it could be, but I am still pretty shocked that he was having us do this.

I’m not a very confrontational person, but I did agree when my other classmates said that they were not comfortable using AI.

He didn’t address our concerns, and I got the impression he didn’t really care about what we were telling him.

Honestly, he is right. AI isn’t going away, and people need to accept that.

I did use AI to come up with titles very reluctantly.

Something he did say was that “AI is the future, so you should learn to use it.”

To a certain extent I understand that, and I understand using AI for inspiration or ideas, but that isn’t what he’s having us do.

I talked about this to other people to get their opinions on what I should do. I’m not sure if I should talk with the head of the department because I don’t want to make anyone upset or cause drama, but other classmates of mine might.

They are making a lot of extra work for themselves. And being deceptive.

My friend suggested not using AI but instead coming up with the titles ourselves, and telling him we used AI when we really didn’t.

I liked this idea and told one of my classmates about it, and she liked the idea too.

But now I’m having second thoughts. It feels wrong to use AI, but it also feels wrong to go behind his back.

Our next class is on Friday, and I’m not sure how it’s going to go. Has anyone been in a similar situation? How would you handle this?

Artificial intelligence isn’t going away anytime soon, and the rate at which it is becoming better is incredible. While there are certainly valid concerns about it, those who just try to stop it outright will be left far behind. Using it as a tool is the best way to get the benefits of it while avoiding the problems.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a firm who was fed up with a client denying they’d asked for changes, so they simply stopped following up with them.

Let’s see what the people in the comments on Reddit have to say about this difficult situation.

Listen to the teacher and do the assignment.

This commenter offers some very practical ideas.

You can’t just disregard the instructions of your professor.

Here is someone who says they should talk to the professor.

This commenter thinks the assignment could help teach kids important concepts.

Artificial intelligence technology is quickly working its way into just about every industry around today. It also has a variety of moral and ethical concerns associated with it, which is why so many people are hesitant to fully embrace the tech.

Striking a balance between objecting to AI and keeping up with technology is nearly impossible. This is just one of the many things that the students of today need to grapple with as they continue their education and move into the workforce.