Topic and theme

Since the spectacular launches of ChatGPT from OpenAI in 2022 and of Deep Seek R1 in 2025, we’ve seen an explosion of hype around––and financial, emotional, and creative investment in––generative AI systems that produce synthetic media in the form of text, images, videos, music, and voices. The growing adoption of these technologies in cultural spheres has widespread implications for the landscape of creative labour across legacy and platformized industries. Many fields are interrogating the impacts of GenAI on creativity and industries, including but not limited to creative intellectual property (IP) being scraped to train Large Language Models (LLMs), job loss and transformation of the creative workforce, and the reproduction of existing global inequalities and biases by these softwares across creative labour systems.

As these challenges unfold, urgent questions emerge about accountability, labour rights, and the broader cultural consequences of integrating GenAI into creative work. Without critical inquiry, these shifts risk deepening existing power imbalances while consolidating control in the hands of a few dominant tech entities. This pre-conference brings AoIR scholars together to shape future research on creative industries and labor in the GenAI era, fostering idea exchange, methodological refinement, and collaboration.

This half-day workshop will focus on two key areas of enquiry:

(1) Research Ruptures, Reactions, and Resistances

• Ruptures: How is GenAI already reshaping creative workflows, from content production to audience engagement?
• Reactions: What are the current local, national, and global policies, frameworks, and opportunities regarding AI for creative workers?
• Resistances: How are creators and workers navigating these instabilities, forging new methods of bargaining, reappropriation, adaptation, solidarity and refusal?

(2) Shared Methodologies and Approaches

• What methodological approaches enable nuanced and rigorous research on GenAI and cultural work and industries?
• What can researchers learn from each other about experimental methodologies on GenAI and cultural work?
• What are the possibilities and challenges for methodologically conducting policy and community-oriented research on GenAI and cultural work?

Format and Structure

This pre-conference is an interactive workshop designed to accommodate a maximum of 30 participants. The goal is to generate a shared vocabulary and to identify overlaps and collaborations across a growing field of research priorities. The workshop will conclude with a hands-on session where participants will collaboratively map out future research pathways and policy priorities.

Introductions: Research and Methodology (First Hour)

Each participant is invited to prepare a concise three-minute presentation outlining their current and anticipated interdisciplinary AI research methodological approaches, framed within the workshop’s themes: ruptures, reactions, and resistances. Those not currently engaged in AI research are welcome to bring a pressing question they are eager to explore in the future. The following confirmed participants—representing diverse perspectives from creative labour research—have agreed to offer their three-minute contributions first, to set the pace for the workshop: Nancy Baym, Arturo Arriagada, David Craig, Roseli Figaro, Alessandro Gandini, Daphne Idiz, Annette Markham, Vicki Mayer, David Nieborg, Caitlin Petre, Thomas Poell, Robert Prey, Godwin Simon, Jiaru Tang, and Julia Ticona.

Working Session: Roundtables (75 minutes including break)

Participants will break into roundtables to explore shared interests from the first session in greater depth, with facilitators overseeing the discussions. Participants will discuss key concepts related to creative work and GenAI, including (but not limited to) methodologies, intellectual property and legislative shifts, influencer economies, algorithmic curation, and/or AI-generated content, with a focus on creative labour.

Plenary Discussion: Collaboration “Sprint” (45 minutes)

Participants will reconvene to define how ruptures, reactions, and resistances to GenAI should shape future research. This session will focus on refining research agendas, developing projects and publications, sharing policy recommendations, and exploring innovative methodologies. This session will start with three-minute highlights from each roundtable. The formal session will be followed by an open invitation to karaoke!

Target Audience

This workshop is designed for researchers working at the intersections of media, labour, and critical AI studies, digital platforms, and cultural industries. Particularly, we aim for those grappling with the growing interest in AI within creative industries and now seeking ways to critically investigate these evolving intersections. Early-career researchers, PhD students, and those developing new methodologies are especially encouraged to participate. This workshop requires a room with moveable tables and chairs to accommodate roundtables and the mapping processes. Additionally, we would like to be able to share feedback through easel-sized post-its as well as two or three easels.

Facilitators

Tom Divon, PhD Candidate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, researching the use of GenAI in Palestinian activism.

Zoë Glatt, Postdoctoral Researcher at Microsoft's Social Media Collective, researching the impacts of GenAI on the creator economy.

Rafael Grohmann, Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, researching AI data work and cultural workers' collective bargaining around AI.

M.E. Luka, Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, researching AI and creative labour from a feminist STS perspective; currently editing a special issue of Imaginations on AI interventions and creativity.