At a time when we can generate fabulously beautiful images in a matter of seconds, we can legitimately wonder whether there is any point in going to art school. More generally, won’t the incredible capabilities of generative AI make the creative professions obsolete, not to mention accountants, lawyers, and writers? I think the answer is no, but there is a but.
The scene takes place in the 90s. We’re in a design office working on a new vehicle. Several engineers are hunched over their screens, running computer-aided design (CAD) software. The designer in charge of the project, Jean-Patrick, is taking a tour. He stops behind one of the engineers and watches his work for a few moments.
Jean-Patrick: Your block doesn’t fit on his part.
The engineer: What do you mean?
Jean-Patrick: What I just said. Your block doesn’t fit on his part.
The engineer, annoyed: Yes, it’s upright, you can see it on the screen, can’t you?
Despite several requests, the engineer refuses to move. Jean-Patrick decides to unplug the computer, which of course shuts down immediately. Dead silence in the room.
Jean-Patrick: Take a piece of paper and a pencil and draw me your block.
The engineer does so. He begins to draw, then slows down more and more until he stops. “You’re right, it doesn’t fit.”
Trained only with computer tools, the engineer had never acquired a sense of proportion or a mastery of tangible matter. He was unable to truly “see” a part, its geometry, volume, and dynamics, unable to “feel” it in real life. He lacked the basics. Years later, in 2011, when Jean-Patrick, Renault Gautier and I launched the IDEA (Innovation, Design, Entrepreneurship and Art) program at emlyon business school, we decided that it would start with “old-fashioned” drawing classes, i.e. paper, pencil, eraser. We were laughed at a lot, but thanks to Jean-Patrick, we knew what we were doing and why we were doing it.
To get the most out of AI, you need to master the basics
What does that have to do with AI? Well, a lot. Photoshop lets me manipulate images. It allows me to do things that I couldn’t do otherwise. But Photoshop doesn’t make me a graphic designer. With Photoshop, a graphic designer will always do a much better job than me. The same goes for AI. Those who master the fundamentals of a field will always do better than amateurs. The key, of course, is that they are not locked into corporatist mental models, nor are they content to use AI merely to improve their practice, but to reinvent it.
Individual skills, especially basic skills, have never been more important. The best way to educate our young people for AI is to educate them in these basics: reading, writing, arithmetic, reasoning, and of course general culture for all, as well as the basics of the profession in which they specialize. Only then will they be intelligent users of the tool that is AI, capable of recognizing its potential, but also its limits, even its dangers, and of inventing fantastic things. This is why the disastrous results of French students in the PISA rankings are so worrying. In themselves, because a country that can no longer educate its children is doomed to decline, and because they will prevent us from benefiting from, let alone contributing to, technological progress.
And that’s why I believe that my daughter can safely embark on artistic studies, and that it’s even possible that in a world where everyone will be able to produce a beautiful image with ChatGPT, the difference can only be made with solid basic studies… and a good general culture.
➕You can read my previous articles on related topics: 📃What a dog can teach you about the dangers of AI, 📃Artificial Intelligence: Your Next Competitor Will be a Centaur.
🇫🇷 French version of this article here.
📬 If you enjoyed this article, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive future articles via email (“I subscribe” in the upper right corner of the home page).
One thought on “Can my daughter still go to art school in the age of AI?”