Co-coding with AI - Exploring co-creative partnerships with generative AI tools in programming education

Advancements in generative AI or Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) makes it possible to translate natural language into working programming code.

The potentials of such technology pose important questions regarding what role it could play in the emergence of novel programming practices and how we should shape the future role of AI in the digital design industry.

The proposed project will investigate how GAN-tools may be used as constructive resources for programming activities in creative design contexts by applying a notion that builds on a process of co-creativity between user and technology.

This will involve examining how to support novice programmers in creative programming contexts to engage in the use of AI-based generation of programming code and design ideas - as processes of joint co-creativity and co-construction between human and artificial intelligence.

Methodologically, the project will adopt a combination of design-oriented research approach and ethnographic research to understand the relational processes of use and creativity with GAN-tools, as well as to design technologies and methods to support these processes.

This way of combining ethnographic and design-oriented research has become influential in studies of human-computer interaction through its focus on producing knowledge and gaining new insights by practical exploration and iteration among conceptual analysis, developing activities and prototypes, and testing and revising alternative solutions.