The Creative Prompt

Human Creativity and Artificial Intelligence

What is Creativity?

Creativity is the ability to use your imagination, original ideas, and new ways of thinking to generate something that is novel and valuable. It involved breaking away from traditional ways of thinking to develop new and unique solutions to problems or to create something that has never existed before. Creativity can be expressed in many different forms, including art, music, writing, design, and innovation in business and science.

It is a skill that can be developed through practice and exploration, and it is highly valued in many different fields for its ability to drive progress and innovation.

Creativity has always been a core component of what drives an artist to build their skill, and create meaningful art. Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to perform tasks. AI systems can learn from data and experiences, adapt to new situations, and improve their performance over time. However, AI is plagued with a host of issues like limited knowledge, bias derived by the creators, data scarcity, and an over lack of trust in the technology companies that create them. So, with AI getting involved in the creation of imagery, written text, and other products typical reserved for humans to create how are we considering how it compares to the value of a human artist’s creativity to express ideas.

The following two examples show the ingenuity of artist compared to basic AI tools. Obviously, these AI tools can be adapted and trained to produce unique imagery and summaries. But taking a step back from the greater discussion about Artificial Intelligence, and the integration of digital communication in our everyday lives to just appreciate the unique works of these artists is a worthwhile exercise in of itself. It’s important to remember that it’s not the tool that’s being used, but rather how one is expressing themselves.

James Luna

James Luna was a Native American artist who highlighted how museums and American culture portray Native Americans in his work. His most famous work, The Artifact Piece, was a quiet but powerful commentary on how Americans view Native Americans as natural history artifacts.

Luna’s work was satirical but illuminating. Luna passed away in 2018, leaving behind a legacy that helped bridge the gap between indigenous artists and the contemporary art world.

A prompt as then developed based on James Luna’s work; “How do museums and American Culture portray Native Americans?” The generator created and image that was indeed accurate, but missed the nuances of a life lived in historical context.

Leaving the viewer removed from any true human experience, removes a certain ingredient in art that moves us to make connections.

Gregory Crewdson

“Gregory Crewdson Fuses Fact and Fiction in American Suburbia” writes Rosalind Duguid for the online publisher Elephant.art

Crewdson, and American photographer began work on his iconic series Twilight twenty-one years ago, but his eerie vision of suburbia remains decidedly out of time, and resonates with the fears and conspiracies of today.

His photographs don’t seem real, yet they are, every aspect of what ends up in the picture field has been physically put in place.

Using elaborate sets, actors, and environmental influences the images created are absolutely captivating – drawing us into the narrative and wondering what’s next. A prompt was then created based on his word and fed to a basic AI generator to create and image as well. The result was indeed accurate, but once again missed the nuances created by the artist.

AI Generated Image:

In conclusion, there is much to explore in the intersection of creativity and artificial intelligence, it is clear that both humans and machines have unique strengths that can be combined to create new and exciting forms of expression. By embracing the possibilities of human creativity, augmented by AI will expand the creative horizons and push the boundaries of what we thought possible.

But let’s not lose sight of what matters the most; our humanity.

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