SEPTEMBER

Dialogue

Send your views, using ‘Dialogue’ as the subject line, to edge@futurenet.com. Our letter of the month wins an exclusive Edge T-shirt

Issue 425

No shortcuts for creativity

In your thought-provoking piece on AI in E424, Mike Verdu argues that AI prompting can lead to “this amazing explosion of creativity from people who didn’t even know they were creative any more”. I think he misunderstands what creativity actually is. Prompting an AI to generate something is as similar to creativity as clearing your throat is to singing. Sure, it makes a noise, but is it art? Imagining something is just a prelude to the creative process. Verdu is merely describing someone who has an imagination, something that many people have. The creative process is what we must go through to take what we can imagine and to give birth to it in the real world. This is a struggle, and the struggle is intrinsic to the process. Look at great musicians like The Beatles trying to wrestle songs into existence. Look at the paintings of van Gogh, where you see paint strokes over paint strokes as he finds the forms of things. AI almost entirely nullifies that process of struggle. Verdu’s argument debases creativity.

Joe Crook

AI advocates would perhaps point out that The Beatles, like most bands, started out by recreating the work of others. Does that argument justify hastening the demise of the planet and everything else? Nah.