March 3, 2026

AI gave me an assignment, and I did it. Now what?

Key Points

Positive outcomes might emerge when AI gives instructions instead of receiving them, encouraging creativity.
AI tools, particularly ChatGPT, facilitate conversations that explore ethics and creativity in daily life.
The approach blends methods of instruction art with avant-garde traditions to foster new perspectives.
This exploration supports a more playful engagement with technology and its potential benefits.

Abstract

How useful can AI be at this present moment to generate assignments or instructions to teach and train people to live more playful, creative and ethical lives? In this artistic research, I try to put aside fears of a dystopian future in which runaway AI assumes control over humanity, and suspend them long enough to play with the idea of reversing the usual dynamic: what if AI were to instruct us, instead of us instructing AI? What kind of positive outcomes could emerge? I borrow from traditions of instruction art and avant-garde art, and I employ discursive practices that alternate between techno-enthusiastic and techno-skeptical. The AI tool ChatGPT and I hold conversations in which we explore the research question together, and in which I prompt ChatGPT to issue me instructions, then I describe the process and result of executing the instructions. keywords: AI, assignment, instruction, ethics, everyday life, aesthetics

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Cite This Study

Brett Ascarelli (Wed,) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69a75ce2c6e9836116a26227 https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.22501/artact.3033444

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