The modern neural network, as a prototype of artificial intelligence, becomes not just an assistant in student learning, but its co-author, co-creator, a partner and a mentor. The ever-increasing and less-controlled capabilities of artificial intelligence in the field of collecting and analyzing information, organizing experiments, modeling and forecasting, generating original content, call into question the very principle of freedom of human creativity. The concept of “digital freedom” is introduced in the article to describe the new conditions of students' creative activity. The information environment is considered as a resource and, at the same time, a barrier for traditional approaches, which are adopted in pedagogy, to project creative activities of students. In the situation of digital freedom, new effective models and strategies for organizing, conducting and evaluating student projects arise. The article provides a review and comparative analysis of group and individual design strategies, introduces and describes new strategies for project activities based on collective leadership and co-creation with artificial intelligence. The experiences of project creative work performed by bachelor’s students and master’s students of the Higher School of Journalism of the Institute of Social and Philosophical Sciences and Mass Communications, the Institute of International Relations and the Institute of Psychology and Education of KFU were analyzed.

digital freedom, design, project and creative activities of students, strategies for project and creative activities, models of project activities