Assisted creativity: Can AI enhance human creativity?

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  Quantumrun Foresight
• December 11, 2023

Insight summary

Advancements in AI, notably with generative platforms like ChatGPT, are transforming AI-assisted creativity, enabling more autonomous artistic expression. Originally augmenting human creativity in various fields, AI now plays a more complex role, raising concerns about overshadowing human artistry and content authenticity. Ethical considerations, such as AI biases and the necessity for diverse training data, are emerging. AI's increasing involvement in artistic endeavors leads to issues like potential art fraud, AI-authored literature, the need for regulatory oversight, public skepticism of creative authenticity, and AI's expanded role in collaborative creativity across various disciplines.

Assisted creativity context

AI's initial role in augmenting human creativity has evolved significantly. IBM's Watson was an early example, using its extensive recipe database for culinary innovation. Google's DeepMind demonstrated AI's prowess in gaming and complex task mastery. However, the landscape has shifted with platforms like ChatGPT. These systems, using advanced language models, have extended AI's reach into more intricate creative realms, enhancing brainstorming sessions and creative constraints with more nuanced and complex inputs.

Despite this progress, concerns remain about AI's potential to overshadow human creativity, leading to job losses or reduced human involvement in the creative process. Additionally, the authenticity and emotional resonance of AI-generated content remain topics of debate.

Disruptive impact

AI's competency in artistic fields has been increasingly demonstrated. Notable instances include AI algorithms completing symphonies by Beethoven and other classical composers, relying on existing sketches and musical notes to produce compositions true to the original style. In the realm of idea generation and solution finding, systems like IBM's Watson and Google's DeepMind have been instrumental. However, new entrants like ChatGPT have expanded this capability, offering more versatile and contextually aware suggestions across various domains, from product design to literary creation. These advancements highlight the collaborative nature of AI in creativity, functioning as partners rather than replacements for human ingenuity.
An emerging ethical consideration in AI-assisted creativity is the potential for embedded biases in AI systems, reflecting the training data's limitations. For example, if an AI is predominantly trained on data featuring male names, it might exhibit a bias towards generating male names in creative tasks. This issue underscores the need for diverse and balanced training datasets to mitigate the risk of perpetuating social inequalities.

Implications of assisted creativity

Wider implications of assisted creativity may include: 

• Machines that can mimic the art styles of iconic, high-value artists, which can lead to increased fraud in the arts community.
• Algorithms being used to write entire chapters of books, both fiction and non-fiction, and covering a wide range of genres.
• Increasing pressure on governments to regulate the creation and use of AI-based creative work, including who owns the copyright.
• People mistrusting creative output in general because they can no longer determine which was generated by real human artists. This development can result in the public placing decreased monetary value upon various art forms, as well as a bias against machine-created outcomes.
• AI being used as an assistant and co-creator in creative fields, including designing vehicles and architecture.

Questions to comment on

• What are the ways that AI has enhanced your creativity?
• How can governments and businesses ensure that AI-assisted creativity doesn’t result in fraudulent activities?