Creativity: Arts, Music, Storytelling

A misconception to examine

The idea that AI kills creativity is persistent, even in the faculty lounge. It isn’t wrong in principle: a tool that produces a poem in three seconds can spare a student the effort of finding their own. But used correctly, ChatGPT can also stimulate imagination, propose fertile constraints—artists have long known that constraints fuel creation—and open paths a student wouldn’t explore alone. Everything rests on an explicit division of roles: the student remains the creator; the tool is merely a catalyst. Activities where students dialogue directly with the tool require the framework covered at the start of this course, suitable for class use from grade 8 (4e) onward; before that, teachers use it to prepare constraints and materials.

Storytelling and creative writing

Faced with a blank page, ChatGPT becomes a writing companion that keeps the momentum going without tiring. To start a story, it proposes an incipit that the student continues: the hardest hurdle, the first sentence, is cleared, and the student immediately pulls the narrative in their own direction. Constraints work just as well: impose a setting, an object, or an unexpected character, and observe what the student makes of them.

Work on points of view involves rewriting a scene through another character’s eyes, an exercise the tool brings to life by discussing the student’s choices rather than simply correcting them. The genre game transforms a realistic story into science fiction, a fairy tale, or a detective story, making the codes of each genre more tangible than a theoretical lecture ever could.

The digital exquisite corpse adapts a proven collective exercise:

1. One student writes the first paragraph
2. ChatGPT writes the second, respecting the tone
3. Another student continues
4. Alternating between students and the tool creates an unexpected narrative
5. The group revises the whole to make it a coherent text

The final revision is the most educational phase: the group exercises its literary judgment on mixed material, often noticing that the tool’s paragraphs are the smoothest. For character creation, ChatGPT helps add depth in the same way—internal contradictions, motivations, speech tics—without changing the protocol: the student decides, and the tool proposes options that the student accepts, modifies, or rejects.

Visual arts

ChatGPT can generate and modify images. In visual arts, however, this isn’t where it serves best, since the stakes lie in the student’s gesture: its contribution comes before and after that gesture. Upstream, it helps conceptualize, whether exploring a movement, an artist, or a technique, or drafting a brief that defines the concept, colors, and materials. It also supports artwork analysis by helping students deconstruct a composition. Downstream, it offers constructive criticism: the student describes their work, and the tool asks questions that help them improve it without dictating what to do.

If you demonstrate image generation in class, treat it as an object of study rather than a shortcut: What happens to an artist’s style when imitated by a machine? How do you recognize an image produced by a model? What is the value of an image that cost no effort?

Music and sound creation

In musical creation, the tool accompanies without composing in place of the student. For lyrics, it works on versification, rhymes, and word rhythm: a student stuck on a line that’s too long finds an tireless partner for adjustment. For structure, it proposes song architectures, verse-chorus or AABA form, which the student fills with their own music. On the theory side, it explains scales, chords, and harmonic progressions with the patience of a tutor, and it recounts the history of a genre or movement so practice is rooted in culture.

In music education, it helps teachers prepare comparative listening sessions, instrument recognition exercises, and structured listening guides.

Theater and oral expression

The stage also has its place. For sketch writing, ChatGPT proposes an outline and students write the dialogue. For improvisation, it generates starting situations in quantity, ending sessions where everyone spends twenty minutes looking for an idea. For diction, it provides pronunciation exercises and tongue twisters calibrated to the group. For staging, it fuels reflection on blocking, intentions, and emotions, which the troupe then settles on the floor.

The golden rule of assisted creativity

Before every session, write down in black and white what the tool provides and what the student creates, then state this boundary clearly to the class: the tool proposes, the student decides, and the final creation always belongs to the student. This rule conditions the student’s pride in their work, and thus their desire to create again. It also protects assessment: the tool’s contribution must be declared, and unauthorized use for graded work is cheating. Your criteria must reflect the same demand, focusing on the originality, coherence, and technical mastery of the submitted work.

Your turn

Design a creative activity.

1. Choose one discipline from the four in this lesson
2. Write down what the tool provides and what the student creates
3. Prepare three creative constraints to launch the activity
4. Set evaluation criteria: originality, coherence, technical mastery
5. Plan how each student will declare the tool’s part in their work

Official sources: Images in ChatGPT · Getting started with ChatGPT as an educator (OpenAI Help Center) · Artificial intelligences and their uses in education (éduscol) · Publication of the framework for the use of artificial intelligence in education (Ministry of National Education)

Key takeaways

• AI stimulates creativity when it acts as a catalyst, not an author
• Stories written collaboratively by students and the tool are judged during final revision
• In visual arts, the tool helps conceive and analyze; the gesture remains the student’s
• Image generation is shown as an object of study, not a shortcut
• The tool’s contribution must be declared: the final creation always belongs to the student