19/08/2026
SYNTHETIC CREATIVITY: Creating Our Way to Conformity
By: Roy EspaĂąola
Amidst the growing popularity of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the art of creating is being overshadowed by the convenience of generating, as students now turn their creative juices into stored promptsâletting algorithms transform a few typed instructions into polished posters, captions, and publicity materials that once demanded imagination, experimentation, and time.
This escalating dependence on AI raises a question about the âthought processâ behind these AI slops and how it stunts studentsâ artistic growth while dealing a heavy blow to the graphic designers whose craft it replaces.
Emerging in the mid-20th century, AI has evolved from a technological concept into a tool embedded in education. Canadian computer scientist Yoshua Bengio explains that modern AI learns from experience, drawing patterns from data to determine how it should respond rather than simply following programmed rules.
In the Philippines, the Department of Education (DepEd) has allowed AI as a support tool in simplifying lesson-planning requirements through the ILAW FrameworkâIntentions, Learning Experience, Assessing Learning, and Ways Forwardâpotentially reshaping the learning experience of 26 million students across 45,000 public schools.
On the same note, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) urged Philippine universities and colleges to integrate AI, citing its potential to strengthen personalized learning and develop studentsâ digital skills, preparing them for the competitive demands of the future workplace.
Ironically, the very technology meant to prepare students for the future may be the same one holding them back. While AI can simplify academic tasks and strengthen digital skills, excessive reliance on it risks leaving learners without the creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills needed to remain competitive in a workforce that demands more than prompt-writing.
This also points out the glaring issue about studentsâ employability amid the labor marketâs struggle to accommodate a new wave of graduates entering the workforce, emphasizing the need for skills that extend beyond what AI can readily provide.
More so, AI-generated logos, posters, and pubmats put artists and designers at risk of being replaced by outputs produced in mere seconds. For professionals who have spent years mastering layout, color theory, and visual storytelling, having their craft traded for a prompt is not innovationâit is a lost opportunity.
Beyond its effects on the workforce, AI also poses devastating effects on the environment through its immense energy and water consumption. A United Nations study estimates that generating a single AI image consumes about 29 milliliters of waterâroughly two tablespoons. For a mere design or publicity material, risking greater resource depletion and environmental damage for convenience is hardly worth it.
Still, AI is not inherently the enemy of creativity. It is a leap forward that can help the outgrown educational system and democratize design by giving students with limited technical skills access to tools for brainstorming, refining ideas, and creating accessible materials. The problem begins when assistance becomes substitutionâwhen students surrender the decisions, ideas, and creative process entirely to an algorithm.
We should instill in mind that AI should remain a tool, not the creator. Students can harness it for repetitive tasks, inspiration, and refinement while retaining authorship over the concept, message, and final direction. After all, the value of a poster is not measured by how quickly it was generated, but by the human mind that decided what it should say.
Layout by: Elijah Miguel Jardinez
