Keynote speakers

To be announced

Organizing Committee 

Tobias Blanke, Monika Kackovic, Somendra Narayan, Nanne van Noord & Thomas Poell 

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is fundamentally reshaping our understanding of human-machine interactions. For the first time, machines can generate coherent text, create visually compelling images, produce short videos, and even complete unfinished musical compositions. The widespread adoption of this kind of AI is changing creative production and consumption, reigniting debates on the nature of creativity and its evolving trajectory. AI-driven prompting has introduced new opportunities, empowering individuals from diverse backgrounds—including those without technical expertise—to engage in creative processes in unprecedented ways. However, the rise of GenAI also raises pressing concerns, including job displacement, labour inequities, ethical dilemmas, and a huge concentration of computational resources in a few Big Tech companies.

Beyond traditional creative fields, GenAI is disrupting industries such as programming, education, and marketing. AI-assisted coding challenges the future of software development, while AI-generated research outputs call into question established academic practices. In education, conventional assessment methods such as essays are under scrutiny as AI tools can generate content with ease. Additionally, GenAI’s ability to produce persuasive marketing materials raises concerns about misinformation and digital manipulation. As generative models advance, they test our ability to trust digital media, making regulatory frameworks more critical than ever.

In the light of these developments and challenges, the GenAI & Creative Practices: Past, Present, and Future conference aims to gather together scholars, researchers, and practitioners from around the world to discuss: 

1. Rethinking and Redoing Creative Practices in the Age of GenAI

• What constitutes creativity when humans and machines collaborate?
• How do prompting and AI-driven tools redefine creative practices?
• What new artistic and design paradigms emerge from these collaborations?
• What novel methodologies can ensure responsible AI-driven creativity?

2. Values & Creative Work

• How can we move beyond post-hoc regulation to integrate ethical, cultural, and societal values into generative AI models, as they are adopted across the cultural sector?
• How is GenAI transforming interactions among users, citizens, cultural workers and organizations?

3. Scalable Responsible Generative AI and Creative Practices

• What challenges arise when collecting and curating datasets for AI-driven creative tasks? How does bias in training data affect the outputs of generative AI in art, music, and storytelling?
• What metrics can be used to evaluate creativity in AI-generated works?
• What are the challenges in developing AI that can generate content across multiple modalities (e.g., music, visuals, text)?
• What are creative applications of GenAI in non-artistic fields like health, sciences and industry?

4. The Future of Creative Work

• What are the implications of GenAI for creative labour markets and job structures?
• How does AI-generated content impact the roles of artists, designers, and writers?
• What strategies can mitigate economic disparities and labour exploitation in AI-driven creative fields?

5. The Political Economy of GenAI and Transformation of the Cultural Sector

• How is access to data and computational resources distributed in the production of GenAI models and what are the consequences for organization of the cultural industry? 
• How does the political economy of GenAI shape the creative practices developed through these technologies? 
• How can alternative infrastructures for developing GenAI models be developed, enabling new creative practices?    

6. Governance and Regulation of GenAI

• How will policies such as the EU AI Act shape the development and deployment of GenAI? And do such policies sufficiently protect the cultural industries? 
• What frameworks are necessary to ensure fairness and accountability in creative work? Do we have to rethink fairness and accountability for GenAI?
• How do governance frameworks influence the creation, distribution and consumption of AI-generated content?

We welcome submissions from diverse disciplines, including but not limited to computer science, (digital) humanities, (computational) social sciences, law and arts. Submissions should provide critical insights, empirical research, or innovative methodologies relevant to the conference themes.

Dates & Times

Abstract submission deadline: 26 May, 2025
Notification of acceptance: 27 June, 2025 
Deadline registration: 19 September, 2025
Conference dates: 17 & 18 December, 2025

Location

University of Amsterdam 

Costs

Registration fees (includes conference dinner & closing drinks):

• OECD countries, faculty & postdocs: 100 Euro
• OECD countries, PhD students: 50 Euro
• OECD countries, affiliates of NGOs and non-academic research institutes: 100 Euro
• Non-OECD countries, affiliates of NGOs and non-academic research institutes: 50 Euro
• Non-OECD countries, faculty & postdocs: 50 Euro 
• Non-OECD countries, PhD students: 25 Euro 

To apply

Proposals for individual papers should be 400 words (maximum). Please also include a 50-word bio of the presenter. Paper presentations are 15 minutes long and will be held in panels (max. 4 papers) of an hour and a half. 
Submit your abstract for individual papers

Proposals for a pre-constituted panel should include a 400-word rationale for the panel, as well as 400-word abstracts for each paper and 50-word bios for each speaker.
Submit your abstract for pre-constituted panel

Proposals for a roundtable should include a 400-word rational, as well as 100-word abstracts and 50-word bios for each speaker.
Submit your abstract for a roundtable

Finally, proposals for a fishbowl are also welcome. These should include a 400-word description, as well as 50-word bios for each speaker.
Submit your abstract for fishbowl

Early career scholars and PhD candidates are welcome and encouraged to submit abstracts. Upon request, the organizers can provide successful early career scholars and PhD candidates from Non-OECD countries with a lump sum travel grant to support costs for registration, transport or lodging. In order to make use of this offer, please indicate this in your application.

For more information, or if you encounter any problems with the submission forms, please contact us at rdt-fgw@uva.nl.