Augmenting human creativity
Our expert voices conversation about computers and creativity.
Human creativity has always evolved symbiotically with tools. New technologies such as ink and canvas let us create writing and painting. Well-tempered instruments allow us to explore music in multiple keys. Computers help us invent the digital arts, from the stunning visuals of a blockbuster movie to the thumping bass of an electronic dance party.
What's next: AI is the next step in the coevolution of tools and creativity. We can train these systems on thousands of examples of music and visual art until they learn common patterns, which can then be used by people as high-level controls with semantic meaning. Machine learning models can now blend different famous artistic styles, interactively manipulate sketch drawings, extend melodic compositions, and explore the sounds between instruments, discovering new sounds and sonic textures. In other words, AI algorithms are not just a set of new tools, but a new way to make new tools. Bottom Line: Artificial intelligence will transform the creative process of humans not by replacing human ingenuity, but by augmenting it with smarter tools that enable new avenues of expression.
Other voices in the conversation:
- Simon DeDeo, complexity theorist and cognitive scientist, Carnegie Mellon University and the Santa Fe Institute: thy commitment, decorated with Joy, begins to speak briskly
- Ed Newton-Rex, founder and CEO, Jukedeck: Computers are already creative
- Tony McCaffrey, CTO, Innovation Accelerator: Computers and humans and super-creativity
- Oded Ben-Tal, composer and researcher, Kingston University: Our definition of creativity will change
- Simon Colton, artificial intelligence researcher, University of London: Machines will be creative for, with and despite us