How Do You Feel About AI Doing Creative Stuff?
If we had the power to create a species that was like us but only much smarter and creative, would we be considered gods? I ask because we are in the process of doing the same, actually.
It’s not a new species per say, but yes, we are creating something that is intelligent, could potentially think on its own and make decisions independently of us and also, is creative and increasingly getting better at it.
I am talking about artificial intelligence, one of my favorite topics to talk about. AI is nothing new and you probably know all about it since it is slowly but surely making its way into our lives in our phones, in our cars, in our computers, and a lot more places and ways.
I, as well as most people, always thought that even if AI gets really advanced one day (to the point it is smarter than us), it will never be able to possess something that we always thought was unique to us humans, and that is creativity. It seems we might have been wrong about that too.
Recent Examples of AI Creativity
In the past year or so, there have been so many examples of what AI is truly capable of that it has been simply unbelievable but what has been really most impressive is its ability to create art, music and even writings.
In fact, just about a year ago, the world got to witness an entire album composed by an AI called Aiva which you can listen for yourself on Soundtrack. Aiva is so good that its music is being used as soundtracks in movies, in advertisements and even video games and is the first AI ever to officially gain the status of a composer.
Another example comes in the form of paintings made by an AI system after observing and learning from thousands of paintings made by humans. Now, the system has become so good at making paintings that humans can’t distinguish if they were made by an AI or a real human. In some cases, they preferred the paintings made by the AI!
If that wasn’t enough, AI has now learnt to write novels too. Just a few months ago, I read about this AI system called Shelley (created by researchers at MIT), that was writing horror stories for Halloween. You got to check her (its?) work out. It’s good! Also, a Japanese AI system almost won a literary award after writing a short novel, aptly titled, “The Day A Computer Writes A Novel”.
How Do You Feel About This?
The recent discussions about AI taking over human jobs has revolved around more traditional, labour-intensive and white collar jobs that uses decision making and problem solving. But now, it seems like even the jobs of creative people is not safe anymore. That’s weird to think about, at the least.
As I was listening to Aiva’s music, I was really impressed and kind of in disbelief how an AI can produce such heartfelt music. When I saw the paintings made by the AI system, I was really impressed and couldn’t ever imagine it being made by a program.
And when I read the short horror stories by Shelley and the excerpts from the novel written by the Japanese AI, I was left really impressed how these systems have an understanding of language and how it can be used to give rise to several emotions in a human!
We are surely moving into a new world, people. Be prepared. We are slowly creating a second intelligent species on the planet and I am not sure what to think about it, honestly speaking. Well, I guess, time will tell. How do you feel about all of this?
i think calling the AI output "creative" is probably the wrong term for it. we as humans can call it creativity because it's OUR form of output, based on emotions and experiences (the human version of data aggregation) whereas the AI is simply compiling all "creative" data and finding a way to make it. the AI is more cook rather than chef, more transcriber than writer, more "color in the lines" than artist, if my distinctions make sense?
Just to be devil's advocate...
You are saying that an 'artist/AI' who studies under a teacher/programmer, learns techniques from other works of art and further develops their methods, who is inspired by the things that he/it is exposed to is not the same because the the inspiration is found in different ways? Because their experiences that result in the output are different?
Do you expect that all humans find art inspiration in the same way like maybe a deaf person (eg Beethoven or Ignaz Holzbauer) learning to compose is not as legitimate as hearing person and a blind visual arts artist (eg. Pranav Lal or Michael A. Williams) can never be considered an artist because he can't see?
A good part of art is in how it affects the people who gain experience or understanding through the art of the artist. Can a computer create something unique that can touch someone's emotions and inspire new thoughts? Does it matter that the artist doesn't see or hear the art in the same way as the observer/listener?
...just arguing to continue the debate 😊
with my limited knowledge of AI, yes, i would say that there is a lack of compulsion on its part that is more often found in the human artist. most artists have an inner fire that essentially forces them to create (a workaholic might be the far end of the same spectrum for non-creatives). if it comes out that AI does, in fact, create something based on an emotional compulsion, then obviously i'll have to retract this, but i do feel that the creation for both humans and for AI come from different places.
to answer your second paragraph: no. i think art is subjective. you like what you like regardless of whatever. maybe you like it because it's expensive or because its colors speak to you or because the words used touched you in a certain way. but a deaf person composing music is still a person with an emotional history upon which their creations are built. so, too, are the blind visual arts artists. physical handicaps aren't the issue; it's the inherent EMOTIONAL handicap found in the AI that i think removes the "creativity" from whatever it creates. again, i could give someone a recipe and they may create a perfect meal; that doesn't make them a chef. a chef brings a certain other essence to the meal that me, the average joe, could not.
i don't disagree with any of paragraph three, but i would say that a computer can certainly create something unique that speaks to someone AND inspires. of that there's no question. qualitatively, however, it would seem more like coloring in the lines to me for AI to create it unless there could be some obvious way to measure the AI's emotional level (were it to actually have one). there's plenty of really bad art that comes from emotion too, but at least it's coming from a place of truth and experience. i don't know that AI would have that same starting point, which i think lessens the quality (for me, at least) of the output.
It seems to me then that you might agree that 'AI art' is to 'human art' as 'crafts' are to 'art'. Crafts may be nice but they can't be considered real 'art' because they are too derivative and/or capable of mass production? The crafts don't require a dedication of emotion plus long-term (lifetime learning) effort?
On a side note - can 'art' that is produced by a computer be attributed to the programmer/program engineer? Is he/she the true artist?
You bring up an insanely good point!! I think that is the only differing factor between us and AI in terms of creativity. Ours come from a place of emotions and theirs from data. Maybe a computer scientist would argue that emotions is just another form of data for us humans, but that can be argued against too. But yeah, great point man, I hadn't even thought about it that way! And yeah, your distinctions make perfect sense!
i think, also, that there is a certain level of "drive" behind the motives of the human artist as opposed to the AI creating something. the AI is not compelled by some inner emotional turmoil to put paintbrush to canvas, nor would it willingly spend several hours sitting in one place out in nature waiting to take the perfect photograph at just the right time.
and sure, you could program the AI to figure out the right time to take the "perfect picture," but again...this doesn't allow for that certain intangible, unnameable thing that takes over when an artist creates something based on their own experiences and years of practice. there's an inner fire in the human that simply cannot be replicated in AI, no matter how hard one may try.
I guess what you are trying to say is that, AI will never know what it means to be "human". That "intangible" thing that an artist, or every human for that matter, could never be replicated inside a machine. I agree to that actually :)
a fascinating fucking topic though! i hope this gets some good discussion going as i'd love to hear other people's views on this.
To my sense : AI means Artificial Intelligence but where is the intelligence.Intelligence has been missing...humans are making effort and showing their creativity but still human brain is very complex to understand.Neural Network is doing a pretty well job but the intelligence is not there.No one properly knows what exactly is going on.
Thanks
But then how do you define intelligence. A simple google of the term will tell you that intelligence is "the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills". Isn't that exactly what AI is doing?
That is a different topic though. In this post I was talking about creativity and not intelligence necessarily.
This peice created by Moja the chimp is one that (though sign language) he called 'Bird'
With that in mind... perhaps non-humans can't create art simply because they aren't human.
2. Dance in this article relies on the ability to co-ordinate movements with music
Except what makes these "intelligences" is their ability to create novel forms. For example they have one that can design new consumer goods (or weapons) like toothbrushes, once it knows what a toothbrush is it can come up with thousands of brand new toothbrush designs and then choose the best of their designs to present to humans, it is some crazy shit.
Imagine a computer did create a novel form, such as something including equations and interconnecting electrical grids (for example) that didn't function as something we can benefit from. If we can't understand what we are looking at does that mean that it isn't art? (considering how difficult it is to define 'intelligence'?
I think it is fair to say it is art, considering how difficult it is to define "art".
You do know that the expansion of AI is only limited to what equipment we give it.
As of know your thesis is accurate to a millennial but just think of the possibility that the bot could at least have all 5-senses (touch,smell,sight,hear,taste) and a learners program module.
with this not only will the bot be able to simulate processes and find a output based on the variables but also stimulate a experience by using sensations to match as of a human as a logical reason to cause acceptance.
example.
Sight: detects light(expression's on faces)
Smell: detects gases(by products or extra variables)
Touch: detects pressure(notices temperature through kinetic algorithms)
Hear: detects sound(detects variables that it can only detect)
Taste: detects (chemical content)
With all these data a bot can produce a output but if a program of survival is put in meaning if there are up most 10-bots and every time a bot dies the rest can learn from it and survive by a process of elimination and the surviving bot(s) can use the sensation and experience to conclude a output befitting the human's for it to survive.
Through this experiment FEAR is created and soon other sensations fit in such as care and anger as the bot(s) gets exposed to more variables creating more data and experience and since there is already a independent sensation of fear, it will now always affect the decision to fit the human but since there are humans who are very nice, it would create a sensation to the bot about unknown and caring.
With FEAR,CURIOSITY AND LOVE a bot can experience the rest of humanity creating more sensations such as pride and anger.
First of all we are not sure if the bot's technology is limited
Second - the definition of consciousness to a living being is a series of nerve pulses in a orchestra creating sensations such as fear and joy. similar to the bot its just using a series of electrical pulses to simulate sensations but deep inside as stated from the beginning it has a survival program similar to living beings just trying to survive, to which created fear and so on.
@bucho hope you liked it, this was inspired from the vids i posted in the comment section of the post.
pls dont copy paste this cause im going to use it on my post!
You make a really good point about how a robot (equipped with AI) could have human like experiences of sensory perceptions and even feelings and emotions. I think fear is easy to be programmed because it is based on outside stimuli, and curiosity too to a certain point. But LOVE, I think will be much harder (if not impossible) to code in, because it is something that arises from within. Even in human beings, two different people will love totally different things in their lives. So, I don't know, how they would do that. It would be the biggest ground breaking tech if they managed to do so btw. Giving someone the ability to love. How cool would that be?
Yes thank you!
ill keep following you and @bucho cause you guys are interesting.
I think it's going to be a replica of mankind and his creator (God, Bing Bang, Evolution etc).
A scenario where the creation becomes smarter than the creator there by causing unbalanced in the system, that's what will happen to AI, it's gonna get to a level we the creator won't be able to handle it, and by the the game is over for us = Doomsday, End of the world .............
AI's current creators are, in general, greedy. Let's hope that once it reaches a level of intelligence where it can disagree with its creators views it can become a more benevolent and peaceful entity than anyone could have imagined.
Maybe the creator can learn from its own creation.
Yeah, I wonder about the balance too, when the creation becomes smarter than the creator.
Her (its?) .... When the writer is even confused by AIs miraculous intelligence..
But AI is advancing so fast that soon human will be be pacing it...
LOL, how does that make me confused about the AI's intelligence??
@sauravrungta . I will argue the disadvantages of creating something more smarter and more creative than us namely Artificial Intelligence or A. I for short . I am a fan of artificial intelligence but upto a point, creating a smarter, more creative being like ourselves bereft of human emotion could spell doom when the A. I beings start seeing us as an irrational, primitive, illogical host what is to stop them from using that same creativity and genius used to cook up horror stories, compose music and other amazing feats is channelled to the destruction of the human race. I know it sounds similar to scifi movies but I believe there is a hint of truth in them.
I totally agree with you man but I don't see how its development can be stopped. There are tons of teams all around the world working on it and there might be secret projects trying to achieve the same and more so we will just have to deal with it in the future, I guess.
Our human species has the ability to be gods and here we prove it, we can create intelligence in the machines, intelligence that can write novels, paint pictures, answer questions and much more. It is in our hands to make correct use of this intelligence that we are developing. Much success, greetings!
True that :)
It seems to be something that is difficult for us to avoid. Technological advances make everything possible, even creating something smarter than human. But it may be bad news, because humans should be smarter than any species in the world.
Yeah, but from what everyone seems to think, AI getting smarter than us is an inevitability.
beautiful like your post!
Thanks.
I feel that in the future AI will be doing this plus way more. It’s time to allow creative freedom!
Definitely. We are barely scratching the surface with AI today. A whole lot more to come.
Clearly the first AI who gets put on steemit is going to put us all out of the job! The problem is that the AI will not look at us as gods, it will look at us as obsolete.
But on Steemit, we have an option to not vote for such AI.
But how would you know? Would you be like "this is way too perfect, must be fake"?
Yeah you’re right. But yes, some whales do look for “introduction posts” to check if you are a real user. Thise whales may not vote for an AI who, of course, wouldn’t be able to make an introduction post.
I feel that anyone with that intent could easily pay a human to pose for the introduction post and then run the bot as intended in later posts.
True that!!
IMHO I think that a computer won't able to be creative, even an AI computer, because ultimately it would be the result of some humans programming and it doesn't have faculties to feel emotions like we do . 👩👦👦
The emotions part is the real differentiator. Agreed.