Creativity in AI Art
This session has been cancelled.
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Understood most broadly, a work of AI art is any work of art that essentially relies, in its production or presentation, on AI technology. This kind of technology comprises algorithms that instruct a computer how to learn; its applications include search engines, facial and voice recognition systems, recommendation systems (such as the ones used by Amazon and YouTube), and strategic game systems. In this paper, I examine a particular kind of AI art, one that is currently attracting a great deal of attention. This is the kind of AI art that uses Deep Learning (DL) algorithms to generate, in an unsupervised way, novel images or text from very large data sets. Examples of text-based DL art include the stories, plays, and poems generated by chatbots like ChatGPT. Examples of image-based DL art include collections of images on Instagram generated by artbots like Midjourney. Within the category of AI art, DL art is particularly interesting for the role it might play in the case for machine creativity. I argue that, despite claims to the contrary, recent accounts of creativity do not rule out the possibility of mechanized artistic creativity. By considering the case of DL art, I offer some recommendations for clarification or elaboration in the creativity debate. In particular, I suggest that we need to rethink a popular argumentative strategy used to defend the importance of agency in creativity. I argue that this strategy relies on some questionable assumptions about the limits of what AI can do and what is involved in collaborating artistically with AI technology.
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Following NHS guidance, all attendees are strongly encouraged to be vaccinated (including boosters) against Covid-19, unless medically exempt. Face coverings are still encouraged, especially in classrooms. Our group is diverse; please continue to be considerate of those who wear face coverings and those who don’t. Thank you.