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The End of Creativity

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Re: The End of Creativity

#11

Post by pitchlatte »

AI is merely exposing an already existing tendency. the creative output of the average non professional will always tend to the mean. it’s a tautology, that’s what the mean is. professional artists are treasured most of all for their _taste_, which tends to be novel and deliberate. the input of good taste into the Gaussian cloud of the average pulls it into new directions. the idea is in fact to improve the mean, that’s artistic education on a societal scale.

on the subject of AI, though: it definitely aggravates this trend.

Re: The End of Creativity

#12

Post by JohnFen »

63 wrote: post #7

Maybe I'm an outlier, but personally if a friend used ai to make me a gift like in TFA, I'd be pretty offended. Using AI shows that you didn't care enough to even think about it on your own. When I see a business use obviously AI generated imagery, I think "I'll stay away from them, they clearly don't care enough to do things the right way." It's a sign of disrespect and a lack of care. I know my partner thinks simil…

> if a friend used ai to make me a gift like in TFA, I'd be pretty offended

As would I. Not only would that demonstrate they don't care, but it would also indicate that this "friend" simply doesn't know me at all, and therefore is an acquaintance at best.

Re: The End of Creativity

#13

Post by alwa »

pitchlatte wrote: post #11

AI is merely exposing an already existing tendency. the creative output of the average non professional will always tend to the mean. it’s a tautology, that’s what the mean is. professional artists are treasured most of all for their _taste_, which tends to be novel and deliberate. the input of good taste into the Gaussian cloud of the average pulls it into new directions. the idea is in fact to improve the mean, tha…

To echo your point—the “from the dawn of existence, up to this moment” framing seems to me a fairly familiar way for amateurs to reach for gravitas, in wedding speeches in particular, and especially between partners both of a certain social milieu…

I wonder how much creativity matters for this type of work.

I’m reminded of iPhoto’s little chintzy auto-generated reminiscence movies. Nobody confuses those “Ken Burns Effect” auto-slideshows with, well, Ken Burns’ work—much less art or creativity—but I still find myself moved to see my memories all hookered up in that format sometimes.

Re: The End of Creativity

#15

Post by lnrd »

I mean, video montages of pictures for birthdays/weddings/whatever were never creative to begin with. Before AI they were just some random template downloaded from a website or backed-in some editing software (I remember so many birthday montage videos made with Windows Movie Maker that looked all the same).

People love these not because they are creative or good executed, but because they see the pictures and the story of the people they love.

Re: The End of Creativity

#16

Post by overgard »

simondotau wrote: post #14

I think if AI has taught us anything, it’s that we over-indexed on human creativity in the first place. True creativity is rare, and often accidental.

It might be rare, but it's anything but accidental. Real creative people work hard on it. It's why they find AI so offensive.

Re: The End of Creativity

#17

Post by overgard »

pitchlatte wrote: post #11

AI is merely exposing an already existing tendency. the creative output of the average non professional will always tend to the mean. it’s a tautology, that’s what the mean is. professional artists are treasured most of all for their _taste_, which tends to be novel and deliberate. the input of good taste into the Gaussian cloud of the average pulls it into new directions. the idea is in fact to improve the mean, tha…

I don't really like describing it as "taste", but I'll roll with it. (I dislike it because it's sort of an elite-coded rich person phrase in my experience. Also, everyone THINKS they have taste.)

The thing about taste is that it's not something that's in-built, it's something you develop. Through working on things and failing. I don't think you can develop good taste by hitting regen a bunch or extra-special prompting.

Re: The End of Creativity

#18

Post by skippyfish »

It's a weird title. AI lets ordinary people feel more creative than before. It's largely an illusion because of the problem outlined in the article: every video, image, blog post, or book written by AI is very same-y, especially if you don't start with a strong vision of your own.

But that's not the end of creativity. That's just a net increase in fake creativity. AI doesn't show up at your place and break all your brushes and easels. If you were a creative person before, you are under no compulsion to use the tech. My artist and writer friends have no plan to.

Now, the situation positively sucks if you're making money on commission, because you now have to compete with practically-free slop that, to most people, is good enough to put on a t-shirt. So I think it will have a negative impact on artists' incomes. But that's a separate story.

Re: The End of Creativity

#19

Post by overgard »

alwa wrote: post #13
pitchlatte wrote: post #11

AI is merely exposing an already existing tendency. the creative output of the average non professional will always tend to the mean. it’s a tautology, that’s what the mean is. professional artists are treasured most of all for their _taste_, which tends to be novel and deliberate. the input of good taste into the Gaussian cloud of the average pulls it into new directions. the idea is in fact to improve the mean, tha…

To echo your point—the “from the dawn of existence, up to this moment” framing seems to me a fairly familiar way for amateurs to reach for gravitas, in wedding speeches in particular, and especially between partners both of a certain social milieu… I wonder how much creativity matters for this type of work. I’m reminded of iPhoto’s little chintzy auto-generated reminiscence movies. Nobody confuses those “Ken Burns Ef…

I think for something like this, creativity is actually a detriment. You're not going to win an award for an extra-special video, you don't really want to draw attention away from the couple towards your clever editing you know?
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