Emerson prides itself on teaching excellence in communication and the arts. With the two disciplines falling cleanly under Emerson’s broader mission of expression, its institutional focus seems cohesive. However, amid the exponential growth of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies in the industries those educational pathways lead to, the school’s mission feels increasingly fractured.
In an approach that reflects industry trends, marketing majors—and minors, like myself—are learning the basis for generating AI-assisted videos, thereby lowering costs of advertisement production. As evidenced by Google’s completely AI-generated ad for its recent “Just Ask Google” campaign, the era of fully AI-generated video production, especially for short form videos, is no longer behind us. Learning these technologies is important for marketing majors in being able to leverage understanding innovative tools for profitability in interviews, and consequently the workplace—but not so great for their artist peers, whose fields are being put at risk by increasing AI adoption.
This raises an uncomfortable question: If one Emerson major is being trained to use AI tools that eliminate labor, what happens to the Emerson majors whose labor is being eliminated? Is there any way to bridge this complete disconnect? Or, as more technologies emerge, are we sentenced to more campus stratification and less cross-department collaboration?
Since the current AI distress stems from classes offered in the School of Film, Television, and Media Arts, what I mean is this: Picture yourself on a traditional set. Look around at all the people there with you, every role, every task, every job needed to reach the final product. Now picture that same set five years from now, this time using AI tools wherever it can. How many of those people from the first set are gone? How many of the eliminated roles were doing the kind of job we learn to do here at Emerson? How many of those dismissed are Emerson alumni?
It is unrealistic to pretend that none of our futures will be hindered by AI integration. But despite this, or perhaps because of it, offering AI classes is not a problem. It is essential to understand how to become indispensable in an AI-saturated world.
Much like Charlie Desjardins in his recent Beacon op-ed, my issue is with Emerson’s implementation, and the lack of care taken toward addressing the fears and ethical concerns that students across all disciplines are grappling with. Most AI efforts have been concentrated in the School of Film, Television, and Media Arts, where many VMA students—made clear by the vocal dissent against the new AI Tools in Media Production class, regardless of the enrollment in various other classes—remain unconvinced that these courses will enhance rather than detract from their education. There is value in that approach: to get film students ahead of the game in their field. Simultaneously, students in industries where AI is already unavoidable are left with almost nothing.
In public relations, for example, generative AI is not emerging by any means: it is already standard practice. Muck Rack’s 2024 State of AI report said 75% of PR professionals used generative AI, which was nearly a three-time increase from March 2023, and suggests that the increase to today is also significant. And yet, you would be hard pressed to find a class at Emerson that covers even a fraction of the AI tools needed for success in communication fields.
By comparison, there have been no reputable studies showing anywhere near that level of AI adoption in film production. This indicates that as a necessary skill for the industry, AI proficiency is more immediately essential for PR and communication majors than VMA students, yet we seem to be receiving less guidance.
And look, I get it. Half the school is made up of film majors. But the film students’ frustrations with the AI courses seems to be that there is no clear explanation for how these AI classes integrate with the rest of their education, both inside and outside of the classroom, and this misalignment causes resistance. On the communication side of the campus, we also feel a version of that uncertainty; there doesn’t seem to be a clear plan, at least one available to us, for how AI will be integrated into our studies or professional development.
Emerson doesn’t like to make definitive statements, but the college falls at the crossroads between AI enthusiasm and skepticism in the pathways it offers. The longer the school avoids both articulating a plan beyond just “integrating emerging technologies” and acknowledging the disparate impact across majors, the further those paths diverge and the harder it will become to function as a mission-aligned institution.
The truth is, that there has always been a cultural split at Emerson. Though we are all storytellers, we choose to employ that passion in vastly different ways. Some of us will graduate and enter corporate life as marketers, PR strategists, or creative business professionals. Others cannot imagine that future at all, choosing instead to pursue creative and independent success. That divide is not new, but AI provides a tangible manifestation of it, one that is far more difficult to ignore.
Artificial intelligence is forcing us to ask whose work gets automated, whose work gets protected, and whose work gets prioritized by the institution. Right now, Emerson doesn’t seem to have an answer.No one expects them to have all the answers; what we do expect is for the school to acknowledge that if it wants students to embrace innovation, it must also embrace responsibility.
