By Jennifer Kiilerich
Generative AI is ubiquitous these days, but its use tends to raise as many questions鈥攆rom practical to ethical鈥攁s it answers. A Vanderbilt website launched this spring, the , provides a space for users to take a breath and reflect on what it really means to create with artificial intelligence.听听
Through an interactive gallery of student-made AI applications and projects, visitors can tinker with innovative machine-learning tools while reading creators鈥� narratives examining the development, potential societal impacts and ethical implications of their work.听
Vanderbilt Peabody professors and are the driving forces behind the project, an initiative of of education and human development鈥檚 . 鈥淲e feel like it鈥檚 urgently needed for students right now to have a broad understanding of the social and ethical considerations of AI,鈥� said Arastoopour Irgens, assistant professor of human-centered technologies.听
Peabody has long been a trailblazer in education and human development, making it uniquely positioned to provide leadership and perspective around responsible, human-centered AI, explained Wise, professor of technology and education and director of LIVE.听
鈥淭he hub is a source of inspiration about not just what鈥檚 possible technically, but what can be imagined,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e want to spark thoughtfulness about what we do with AI and why鈥攁nd what are the consequences of that?鈥澨�听
鈥淭he hub is a source of inspiration about not just what鈥檚 possible technically, but what can be imagined.鈥�
A new AI course is just the beginning听
The hub welcomes submissions from anybody with an AI creation, but its first round of projects came from students in Peabody鈥檚 AI Everywhere class, introduced in January 2025 by Arastoopour Irgens and Wise. Supported by a Peabody Instructional Innovation and Improvement Grant, the course was such a success that it鈥檚 now in process to become a permanent offering.听
Undergraduate student Bryan Zhang completed the course and contributed two projects to the hub. 鈥淲e explored ways that we can shape the future of AI鈥攚ays that regulations can happen, ways that perhaps companies and governments can collaborate,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he class really allowed me to explore and discuss those ideas.鈥�听
Zhang is majoring in economics and human and organizational development and believes the AI skills he鈥檚 learning at Peabody will help him be effective in the workforce. He especially loved how interactive the class was, 鈥渋ntegrating ChatGPT and chatbots, allowing us to fiddle with the underlying metrics to see prompt engineering, image generation, music generation,鈥� Zhang said. 鈥淚 think that really helps us students connect with the course material as a whole. I can envision myself in the future using AI and also thinking about the ethical implications of it.鈥�听
The class is distinctive, said Arastoopour Irgens, because it teaches students to build applications and creative renderings with AI tools while also considering challenges and limitations. 鈥淪tudents shared with us that they were thinking much more critically and much more broadly about how they use AI,鈥� said Arastoopour Irgens. 听
Key concepts include:
- Understanding the energy resources that fuel AI,
- Exploring who is developing AI and what training data they are using, and
- Contemplating the impacts of the technology once it鈥檚 out in the world.
The course was also framed within the context of constructionist learning theory, which suggests that when you build something for a public audience, it changes how you approach that creation. 鈥淪tudents really enjoyed sharing their work publicly,鈥� said Wise.听
Student Ashley Kim said, 鈥淚t was through our discussions that I first learned how training data can shape systems in both subtle and profound ways, which completely shifted how I approached my own project.鈥�听
Plus, many students learned for the first time about , Vanderbilt University鈥檚 AI tool for students, faculty and staff. 鈥淢any of them didn鈥檛 know,鈥� said Wise, 鈥渢hat they could tailor their own Amplify assistant, or that they could use a system instruction prompt to customize how a chatbot behaves.鈥� Created and implemented at Vanderbilt, Amplify is a powerful resource for students to have in their toolkit.听
A website to learn and grow with听
The Peabody Hub for Mindful AI shows off a range of artistic and technical conceptions. 鈥淪hadow Waltz,鈥� AI-created art and music by student Qwynn Foster, features ghost-like dancers in a dramatically lit ballroom and an accompanying song.听
鈥淪hadow Waltz is a testament to what AI can do when guided by human emotion,鈥� wrote Foster. 鈥淔or me, this project was a way to channel old loves, quiet ghosts, and creative sparks that refuse to die.鈥�
Ashley Kim鈥檚 AI assistant, 鈥淜orea Travel Assistant,鈥� allows users to input phrases they may need help with while visiting Korea. The chatbot offers not only translations, but also phonetic pronunciations and suggestions for polite interactions, a culturally important aspect of conversing in Korea.听
In her commentary, Kim noted that 鈥渢he chatbot promotes cultural respect and travel confidence, but there are ethical trade-offs鈥攕uch as oversimplifying cultural nuance or discouraging deeper learning鈥攖hat I worked to minimize.鈥�听
Zhang鈥檚 project 鈥淏reak Free,鈥� meanwhile, looks a little different than the others. A black square, akin to an old television set that has lost reception, features fuzzy, static-like dots. Zhang has some background in AI, having served on his previous school鈥檚 ChatGPT task-force committee, and was eager to dig deeper. He wanted to create chaos with AI鈥攚hich is antithetical to a technology driven by patterns and algorithms.
鈥淚t was an examination of how bias and the algorithm don鈥檛 actually give you full creative freedom, because AI is trained to try to be as organized and as pattern-seeking as possible,鈥� he explained. He worked through many iterations before his screen鈥攁nd corresponding sound鈥攃ame close to achieving a sense of disorder.听
A nucleus for ongoing innovation at Peabody听
The Peabody Hub for Mindful AI Innovation is a jumping off point鈥攁nd dynamic homebase鈥攆or broader AI stewardship and instruction that will take place at Peabody College and across Vanderbilt鈥檚 campus in the coming months and years. The site will continue to expand and evolve, say Wise and Arastoopour Irgens, serving as an active landing spot for students, faculty, K-12 teachers and community members interested in responsible AI use and development.听
鈥淧eabody is thinking deeply about this,鈥� said Arastoopour Irgens. 鈥淧eople across all of our different disciplines are turning their lens toward AI.鈥�听
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The is a program of the . LIVE brings together interdisciplinary teams of researchers and strategic partners to develop cutting-edge learning innovations that empower individuals, communities and organizations to flourish in a rapidly changing world. Arastoopour Irgens and Wise are both researchers and educators in Peabody’s .