The longer I’ve stayed in school, the more frequently I’ve seen on class syllabi that the use of artificial intelligence (AI) is prohibited. Of course, it makes sense that we want to deter the use of AI, especially since we are all attending school in order to learn something. The use of artificial intelligence on most assignments (at least in my field of study, architecture) will result in academic dishonesty. Now, why doesn’t that apply to AI art?
The other day, as I was scheduling Instagram posts for my Artist Alley event, I noticed that a student organization requested to follow us. I won’t expose them directly, but, when I clicked on their Instagram profile, the first post I saw was clearly AI-generated. While I love to support other Illinois Institute of Technology organizations, I was shocked that this organization wanted to follow the account for an event that clearly supports original artwork and states within our table application that we DO NOT accept AI-generated art.
This is not the first time I saw AI art on campus. Around the start of the fall semester in 2023 (I might be misremembering the exact year), I recall seeing a poster for a much more well-known organization on campus advertising with AI-generated images on their posters. On August 4, 2025, students within the Illinois Tech Discord server mentioned how one of the colleges on campus was using an AI-generated image in one of their emails. Another student even mentioned that it was the same image that they used the previous year.
While I understand that not all people are able to pay people to create art for their organizations, why can’t they put in the slightest bit of effort to ask for volunteers to create art or even throw something together on Canva, a free (if you don’t pay for the Pro version) website that allows you to make your own posters easily. I am not the only person who has voiced that we would rather see a poorly-done collage of images than an AI image.
The question remains: why do we not allow AI in the classroom but fully welcome the use of AI when it comes to creativity? The discourse around AI art has been trending since around 2022, and, at least on the side of the internet that I’m present on, many believe that the use of AI-generated art is the lazy approach and takes away from those who have been honing their artistic skills for years. One of the reasons Cosplay Club hosts the Artist Alley event every semester (as of February 2025) is because we want to encourage those who have art skills to share with the rest of the student population the joys of making art.
There is no such thing as a bad artist, but much of the art community will not call you an artist if you choose to use artificial intelligence.
