By Guardian staff reporter
Publication Date: 2026-03-05 12:15:00
What does AI mean for human creativity? How can artists and designers best harness the potential of AI – and should they even do so? The Royal College of Art (RCA) has been dealing with these questions for some time. Since its founding in 1837, the college has continually redefined creative education to embrace technological advances, from the automobile to the moving image.
For Dr. Danielle Barrios-O’Neill, associate dean of the RCA Faculties of Communication and Design, says AI has a big impact on creatives because she believes creativity is the most important component of intelligence. “And perhaps the first impulse is to be afraid. We’ve all seen the headlines about what AI could mean for artists.
“If you had been a painter when photography first came along, there would have been a similar reaction: people who paint portraits thought, ‘Oh God, what does that mean?’ But in the end it changed the way we think about portraiture and clarified the meaning…
