Investigating the Influence of AI Attitudes on Visual Literacy for AI-Generated Images Through AI-Specific Creative Self-Efficacy Among Chinese Art Students

While the spread of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated images becomes inevitable, many universities started to pay attention to developing their art students’ visual literacy in this regard. In this case, these students’ visual literacy for AI-generated images becomes an important area of investigation. This study examines whether attitudes of Chinese art students towards AI will affect their visual literacy for AI-generated images and investigates the mediating role of AI-specific creative self-efficacy (AI-Specific CSE) therein. A total of 418 valid self-reported responses were collected from art students at a Chinese university. The results showed that AI attitudes had a directly positive impact on these students’ visual literacy with AI-specific CSE working as a positive mediator. These findings suggest the great importance of psychological factors in art students’ visual literacy development and offer some pedagogical implications for university leaders and teachers. Beyond this study, broader educational suggestions were also given to cultivate the future artists to use AI tools more critically for their creative process.