Luke Kennard, a creative writing professor, poet and novelist, argues that under-30s are not going to swap real art for AI, despite the technology's growing presence in universities. Writing in a comment piece, he says that while AI adoption among staff and students is high, the statistics are misleading and most arts and humanities students remain deeply committed to human culture and creativity.
AI Adoption Figures Misleading
According to research by the Higher Education Policy Institute, overall AI adoption is more or less ubiquitous, at 92 to 95 per cent between staff and students. However, Kennard says these statistics are misleading, noting that you cannot even use a search engine or open a PDF without AI involvement. He adds that in the arts and humanities, students generating essays with AI is very rare, as rare as plagiarism, which he has dealt with precisely two cases of in his 20-year career while teaching roughly 3,000 students.
Kennard describes cheating as tending to indicate a deeper problem the student is struggling with, and says that with attention and advice they can usually be brought around to trusting their own voice and ideas. He says the vast majority of students who choose to study literature or writing do so out of a deep commitment to the work and a belief in the importance of human culture and history.
Students Reject AI Tools
Kennard says that instead of using AI tools, his students spend hours working on 70,000-word novels, perform at well-attended poetry nights, write and produce stage plays, and start bands and compose music. He notes that they attend to forms of culture that existed before electricity and that will survive even if AI sends us back to the pre-industrial age.
He also points to public statements from successful young artists, quoting electronica composer and musician Fred Again, who recently reflected that the process of writing and making music is what makes it meaningful: “Giving the process bit to a machine would be intrinsically contrary to what I love about the whole thing.”
Art Without Humans Is Empty
Kennard recalls that a couple of years ago his own children messed around with a song-generating app, writing obscene lyrics and setting them to AI-generated music, but they got bored of it within an hour and have never used it since. Meanwhile, they practise their musical instruments every day, courtesy of the local education authority’s commitment to affordable music lessons.
He concludes that a child of 10 grasps naturally what the pushers of AI technology do not: that “art” or craft or design without humans is empty, meaningless, and ultimately damaging to the soul and our collective humanity. He says there has never been a more important time to assert this, and that looking at his students, facing an unstable future with imagination and integrity, he feels gratitude and hope.
