Creativity at a Crossroads: AI, Authorship, and the Future of Creative Work
Description
Generative AI can now write stories and computer code, and produce images, music and videos in seconds, often by learning from the work of the very writers, artists, and developers it competes with. This raises important questions for the creative industries, a sector that contributes around $90 billion to the Australian economy. Is AI-generated work genuinely creative, or is it repackaging what it has copied? Who counts as the author when humans and machines create together? Should creators be asked for consent, or compensated, when their work is used to train these systems? And how is AI reshaping what it means to do meaningful creative work? This half-day workshop, on Thursday 13 August 2026 from 1-5pm, showcases early findings from an Australian Research Council Discovery Project examining the ethical, philosophical, legal, and workplace implications of generative AI for the creative industries. Researchers will present work in progress across philosophy, law, and management, followed by a panel discussion on where these questions should go next. In-person only.
Agenda
- 1:00 pm - 1:10 pm
Welcome and introduction. Prof. Paul Formosa
- 1:10 pm - 1:45 pm
Generative AI and the Future of Meaningful Creative Work. Prof Paul Formosa
- 1:45 pm - 2:20 pm
Authoring in the Age of AI: Writers and Generative AI. A/Prof Sarah Bankins
- 2:20 pm - 2:55 pm
Can Machines Be Creative? Intentionality, Bias, and Generative AI. Dr Tom Montefiore
- 2:55 pm - 3:20 pm
Afternoon Tea
- 3:20 pm - 3:55 pm
Copying or Creating? Does Generative AI Reproduce Artistic Style? A/Prof Raphaël Millière
- 3:55 pm - 4:30 pm
Copyright, Compensation, and Creators' Rights: Regulating Generative AI. A/Prof Rita Matulionyte
- 4:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Panel discussion. Creativity and AI – research gaps and opportunities. With Prof Jean-Philippe Deranty, Prof Kathy Bowrey and Dr Sarah Keith
- 5:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Close
Lineup
Paul Formosa
Professor of Philosophy at Macquire University, his research examines the ethical and political impacts of technology such as AI.
Sarah Bankins
Associate Professor at Macquarie Business School, whose research examines the future of work and the impact of AI on jobs and skills.
Tom Montefiore
Postdoctoral researcher at Macquarie University, working on the philosophy of AI, intentionality, and machine creativity.
Raphaël Millière
Associate Professor at the University of Oxford, whose work investigates large language models, deep learning, and AI.
Rita Matulionyte
Associate Professor at Macquarie Law School and an expert in copyright, AI regulation, and creators' rights, and serves on the Attorney-General's Copyright and AI Reference Group.
Jean-Philippe Deranty
Professor of Philosophy at Macquarie University and a leading scholar of the philosophy of work and recognition.
Kathy Bowrey
Professor of Law at UNSW, whose work sits at the intersection of art, copyright and technology.
Sarah Keith
Senior Lecturer in Media and Music at Macquarie University, whose research examines digital disruption and generative AI across the creative and music industries.
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