AI and creativity

[ma06836]

Although I frequently use various AI tools and believe technology is beneficial, I can't help but wonder: is it diminishing human creativity?

[elisa_b]

AI cannot kill human creativity when there was none in the first place.

Creative people will remain creative, regardless of AI. People with no creativity will use AI to pretend they are, thinking they're smart when they're just fools.

[celgins]

Human creativity comes from within; nothing external can diminish that.

[williamtcooper]

The opposite.

[allpurposewriter]

Theoretically, yes, AI is diminishing creativity. It is designed to do that and people seem to be using it -- people who would otherwise be called upon to be creative.

However, will AI diminish the human impulse to be creative?  In theory, absoluitely not. How could it? Spray paint didn't stop visusal artists from scupting and painting and many thought, Oh, boy  -- a new toy to create with! The computer did not stop creativity -- it simply added another tool to the mix. 

That said, AI does not add another tool into the mix, except in the thinnest possible manner. Spray paint offered a new tool for painters, while AI takes the painting out of the artist's hands. What good is that, I don't know.

Here's an analogy and a true story. I knew an up and coming painter many years ago who greatly admired Jackson Pollack. Pollack's work was revolutionary and his canvases often looked like splattered paint, which, in some ways, was how he used the brush - some painters, as we know, stab at the canvas, while others are gentler than that.

Pollack was pretty violent with his creativity. Be that as it may, my friend who admired Pollock very much decided to build a table that was held in place by a gryoscopic device. By using this, he could manipulate the angle of the canvas, so paint he poured on the canvas would flow to the left, right, forward, backward, all accomplished by tilting the canvase in any direction he so choose. He then put a motor on this, so the canvas would tilt as randomly as possible.

In short, he had found a way to mimic Jackson Pollock mechanically. He had everything he needed to re-create Jackson Pollock's emotional impuses. 

He put a canvas in place, turned on the gyroscopic motor and poured on the paint.

He ended up with one canvas after another that looked like someone had spilled paint on the floor. 

Moral of the story: You can't cheat creativity. Machines are are pretty good at spilling paint on the floor, but that's about it.