Understanding AI: A Creative Workshop for Teens

Do you roll your eyes when you hear schools panicking with the fear that you’ll use AI to do your assignments? Do you struggle to believe that AI can be useful to you? Or are you just curious how AI can be used for creative pursuits? In this workshop we’ll dissect all the AI hype cycles and doom cycles. We’ll also explore AI’s potential as a tool — when, how, and why is it or is it not useful? To cap it off, we’ll do some artistic exploration, resulting in a creative written/visual piece you can take home.

The workshop presenter is Nisa Asgarali-Hoffman, a graduate affiliate of the Community Research, Equity, and Design Collective and the Black Communication & Technology Lab. Her research interests lie at the intersection of digital and cultural studies, race, biotechnology, art, and postcolonial theory. She is a proud former middle school art teacher and is passionate about sparking intellectual and creative curiosity in her students. She holds an M.S. in Human-Centered Computing from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and is a Ph.D. candidate in Information Studies at the University of Maryland.