Threat or Tool? Gendered Perspectives of Visual Arts Students on Artificial Intelligence in Fine and Applied Arts

Abstract

Background: The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence into visual arts education presents a tension between creative augmentation and studio craft obsolescence. Empirical investigation into how gender moderates the evaluation of algorithmic systems as empowering instruments or professional threats remains scarce in fine and applied arts.

Objective: Anchored on technology acceptance models and Feminist Standpoint Theory, this study evaluated visual arts students’ cognitive appraisals of generative artificial intelligence, examined gender differences across perceived utility and threat, and assessed the moderating role of gender on actual adoption.

Methodology: An explanatory cross-sectional survey was conducted across three public universities in Nigeria. Data were collected from 354 undergraduate visual arts students using a structured questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-tests, a Chi-square test of independence, and moderated multiple regression.

Result: Students perceived generative artificial intelligence as an augmentative creative tool to a high extent (Mean = 3.77, SD = 0.73), whilst reporting an even higher level of perceived professional threat (Mean = 4.02, SD = 0.69), notably regarding copyright vulnerability and craft devaluation. Significant gender disparities emerged: male students reported higher perceived creative utility (t = 4.96, p < 0.001) and active adoption (72.0%), whereas female students exhibited significantly higher perceived threat (t = -4.43, p < 0.001) and predominated among non-adopters (54.1%). Moderated multiple regression confirmed that gender significantly moderated the relationship between perceived threat and tool adoption (B = 0.33, p = 0.009), with professional anxieties exerting a markedly stronger inhibitory effect on female students.

Conclusion: Generative artificial intelligence operates as a contested, gendered phenomenon in visual arts education. Male students approach algorithmic tools with operational confidence, whereas female students experience heightened vocational apprehension that constrains uptake. Studio pedagogies must move beyond demographically neutral approaches to address gender disparities, intellectual property governance, and craft preservation.