Report reveals creative engagement with AI

Dr Oonagh Murphy's report analyses how the cultural sector in England is engaging with AI.

Digital Arts becomes first new art form in decades

The report, AI Technologies and Emerging Forms of Creative Practice, was referenced in Arts Council England's (ACE) announcement that it is adding Digital Arts to its list of supported art forms - alongside Collections and Cultural Property, Combined Arts, Dance, Libraries, Literature, Museums, Music, Theatre and Visual Arts. This is a major moment of recognition for Digital Arts, and it is the first new artform ACE has introduced in decades.

Dr Murphy's report showed longstanding investment in digital creativity from ACE, but also that such projects often didn't fit into the traditionally defined disciplines.

AI Technologies and Emerging Forms of Creative Practice

The report analyses how the cultural sector in England is engaging with AI, analysing investment in AI and creative practice by ACE from 2019-2025. It analyses retrospectively 194 projects funded through existing funding mechanisms. The report identifies almost £4 million in investment in creative practitioners using AI technologies, providing opportunities for the development of new AI skills, or on projects that engage with the wider impact of these technologies on society.

The report aimed to provide an evidence-based foundation for conversations about opportunities and impacts that AI technologies are creating in the creative and cultural sector. It states that "in many ways it is creative practitioners who help us to define and establish the questions we should be asking when it comes to thinking about AI technologies and their impact on society" - emphasising the important role of the creative sector in this time of rapid change.

Five case studies are used to show in depth how AI is being used in creative practice across the UK, including Creative Machine. Professor Frederic Fol Leymarie from the School of Computing was interviewed about the long-running project which explores the intersection of creativity and machine intelligence.

The report's findings show that the cultural sector is well-placed to influence Responsible AI policy and practice, with artists offering critical, community-rooted perspectives that complement academic and commercial narratives.

Dr Murphy said, "The report shows that creative practitioners are already interrogating AI's societal impact. Artists bring the public into the conversation in ways industry and policy simply can't. Responsible adoption starts with listening to the people most impacted and artists are often the first to feel the shifts."

Dr Murphy is working as the BRAID Responsible AI Research Fellow, based within the New Technologies and Innovation team at Arts Council England. Dr Murphy has also developed a Responsible AI toolkit as part of this work.