As an Artist, why would you worry about the field of “computational creativity” ?
Well, you weren’t worried about the AI art field three years ago.
So here’s a quick, easy breakdown…
(Pictured above : “artwork” by the painting fool. The Painting Fool is an artificial artist created by Simon Colton of Imperial College, London)
As artists, we have to avoid being surprised by technology the way AI art surprised us.
There’s a field of research called “computational creativity”. Researchers describe its objective as “to gradually transfer creative responsibilities from humans to computers”.
That certainly sound like we should pay attention to it.
So here’s all you need to know about it for now :
First, obviously the whole point of computational creativity is to make a computer creative.
What is creativity ?
Who gets to define creativity ? Philosophers ? Scientists ? Artists ? Steven Pressfield ? Nietzsche ?
To me, creativity is a wholly living process. A truly creative action comes from a deep connection to reality, highlighting aspects of it that no one noticed before.
A truly creative action contains the frustrations, joys and life of the creator. It usually comes after years and years of not being able to express them.
As such, there is no computational creativity.
But what do the researchers in the field of Computational creativity say ?
To them, something creative must have to characteristics :
1- People want to pay money for it.
2- People can’t tell if a human being or a machine made it.
Do you agree with this definition ? If not, what’s your definition ? Feel free to tell me in the comments.
So how are researchers attempting to make computers creative ?
It seems at the moment, they can’t do it. To them, creativity is not the result of an optimization process.
In other words, it is not the results of somebody telling you what to do.
Yet to get a computer to do something, you’ve got to tell it what to do. And all of their proposed “creative algorithms” indirectly involve an optimization process.
This is the hurdle that Computational Creativity may never get over. But the field of AI is fickle, and you never know.
But least for now, it seems like your emotions, your opinions on life, your personality, are things the computer cannot replicate. The fire inside of you burns bright, it gives you joys and sufferings that the AI may never reach.
Take advantage of them. Use them.
Until next time,
ArtPostAI