Supporting children's creative process in the context of developing their literacy in artificial intelligence

Objective. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly becoming important means of supporting individual creativity across various fields, including education. This paper presents research on the use of AI tools in artistic creation by 87 primary school children during creative workshops at a selected Slovak university. It evaluates the quality of the creative process using generative AI language models (ChatGPT and TalkAI), integrating children’s prompts and comparing the results with authentic children’s creations as part of the development of their AI literacy. Within this framework, the study also examines children’s experiences, attitudes toward ethics, and their evaluation of AI as a creative tool. Methodology. The employed methodological tools – a questionnaire and semi-structured group interviews – to explore children’s interaction with AI, their perceptions of AI authorship, attitudes toward the ethical use of AI in schoolwork, and their evaluation of AI-generated creative outputs compared with their own. The method of third-party evaluators in literary criticism was used to compare the quality of AI and children’s texts. Results and conclusions. The findings show that fewer than half of the children use AI tools, and gaps were identified in their ethical assessment. The comparison revealed that children’s texts demonstrated a higher degree of originality, while AI texts were more accurate in terms of form and language. Original contribution. This study highlights the current need to develop children’s AI literacy, particularly in relation to the creative and evaluative use of AI.