Digital Skills Education

Everyone’s talking about Artificial Intelligence – but what does it mean for you as an artist or creative?

AI is already having an impact on the creative industries. We think every creative professional should have the opportunity to try out AI tools for images and writing in a creative and safe environment.

Is it possible to use AI tools in an ethical way?
And how can you protect your own work from being exploited?

We’ll explore the ethical issues of using AI, covering topics like intellectual property, environmental impact, bias and representation, and possible misuse.

What we’ll cover

• Understand how Artificial Intelligence works, explained in clear, non-technical language.
• Explore popular generative AI tools used by creative professionals (including DALL·E, Gemini, Copilot, and ChatGPT) and see how they can support both visual and written creative work.
• Take part in guided, hands-on activities to experiment with image generation, prompt-building, and creative writing with AI.
• Learn how to protect your creative work, including understanding intellectual property, style mimicry, dataset scraping, and practical steps artists can take.
• Examine bias, representation, and inclusion in AI-generated images, and discuss how creatives can avoid reinforcing harmful stereotypes.
• Discuss the ethical issues surrounding AI art, including safety, transparency, and the environmental impact of generative AI.
  

This course is aimed at AI beginners – You don’t need to be a technical expert to take part. We’ve written the course to be jargon-free and easy to understand.

This course is for people working in the culture sector as creative professionals.

This includes visual artists, illustrators, designers, makers and crafters, photographers, filmmakers, performers, writers, and digital creatives such as animators or game designers.

The course is also for educators and facilitators delivering creative workshops or learning programmes. Curators and producers involved in creative projects or exhibitions would also benefit.

You’ll find it useful if your role involves a significant amount of creative work, even if you’d not call yourself an artist. For example marketing professionals, social media managers, copywriters and digital content creators.

We can offer fully-funded places for eligible learners on this course.
This is thanks to funding from Data Skills for Work at The Data Lab through DigiTay the Tay Cities Region Deal Digital Skills Project, funded by the Scottish Government.

Eligible learners must be creative professionals working or living in Angus, Dundee, Fife, Perth & Kinross, East Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scottish Borders and West Lothian.