Just a month ago, I was stuck in a creative rut. The Covid-19 epidemic was altering relationships, meetings, and working methods. When we were all physically separated from one another, I, like many others, struggled to feel motivated. Despite the turmoil and uncertainty, I discovered an unexpected collaborator: an AI.
At the time, I discovered that a machine learning algorithm is capable of creating creative text passages. For example, if you enter in “The following is a description of a fish:,” you could get: A fish is a little silvery-colored animal with a long, thin body. It has delicate, translucent fins and a forked tail. It has huge, dark eyes and a tiny mouth.
It’s not taken from the internet; the AI creates it. GPT-3, on the other hand, can generate essays, fiction, and even articles like this one when given the correct stimuli. Its writing often seems to be human. I experimented with a variety of output, including dad jokes, poetry, sci-fi fiction, and more.
In recent months, there has been significant discussion over whether AI-generated art would be detrimental to artists. There is no doubt that disruptive changes are on the way, and there are still critical problems regarding prejudice, ethics, ownership, and representation that must be addressed. However, new technology have produced upheaval in the art industry for ages. Discovering that AI can create sculptures, paintings, and other works has changed my perspective on the creative process and the potential of human-machine cooperation. I think we are seeing the birth of a whole new creative form.
AI becomes more of a collaborator rather than a calculator as technology becomes more of an extension and amplification of our thoughts, much as a wrench is an extension of our hands and increases our physical abilities. Unlike previous creative tools such as Photoshop, pictures, or paints, we are now dealing with technologies that seem to have generative creativity but maybe no “taste.”
I feel we are on the verge of a new artistic movement, and these instruments represent the start of the next great age of creative expression. Fine art will emerge when the novelty of the surface wears off.