How will AI change creative cultures?

How will artificial intelligence (AI) change the way we create, and what might it mean for creative culture?

Join us for a thought-provoking talk exploring how AI could reshape the creative industries, drawing lessons from earlier technological revolutions including photography, synthesisers and the internet. These technologies did more than introduce new tools — they changed creative practices, industries and ideas about what it means to make art.

Drawing on research from psychology and the social sciences, the talk will also explore how we think creatively, what motivates people to create, and why creative expression matters to individuals and society.

Bringing these perspectives together, Oliver Bown will map out some of the ways AI may transform creative cultures and consider the choices ahead: which changes we might welcome, which we may want to resist, and what we can do to help shape the future of creativity.

Professor Oliver Bown

Professor Oliver (Ollie) Bown is a researcher, musician and Professor at UNSW Art & Design, where he co-directs the Creative Technologies Research Lab. His research explores creativity in the arts, the role of technology in creative practice, and how artificial intelligence is transforming creative work. He is the author of Beyond the Creative Species: Making Machines that Make Art and Music, published by MIT Press in 2021, and contributes to major international and Australian research projects examining music, AI, artists and fairness. A regular commentator on the impact of AI on the creative industries, he is also an electronic musician known for his work with the UK duo Icarus and Australian ensemble Tangents.

History Week talk brought to you by the University of NSW AI Institute and the City of Sydney.