Creativity is the power to channel our imagination and instincts. It keeps every cell of our senses engaged in generating a positive environment with better chances of survival. It, in fact, declares us as HUMANS distinct from robots.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, all the fields of knowledge have been dominated by the involvement of 21st-century skills; critical analysis, creativity, collaboration and communication. These skills exhibited a profound impact, and the world has witnessed the excellent outcomes of these skills on the generation’s psychological, educational and social uplift since a decade before the social media hailstorm took over.
With the fast-forward advancements in Information Technology, everything seems to go mechanised and digitised, including human skills.
Artificial Intelligence, abbreviated as AI, might inhibit human innate and learned skills and capabilities in the long run. Moreover, the sedentary and desk-bound lifestyle has modified the mindset of human beings so that it doesn’t seem awkward to ‘not use our imagination, rather prefer to opt for readymade mechanized solutions’.
What exactly is AI (Artificial Intelligence)?
Artificial intelligence is the mechanical replication of human intelligence manifested as computer programs and applications to accelerate and assist human efforts. In the Computer science domain, AI generally refers to a computer program that can pass the Turing test. A British mathematician, Alan Turing, developed a computer program that talks precisely like a human.
Furthermore, AI is currently identified broadly as AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and ANI (Artificial Narrow Intelligence). The software program that can target AGI or have AGI capabilities is still far away to produce.
All software with AI capabilities generally targets the specific and domain-oriented AI-based solution to the problem. One of the most critical aspects of using AI is the algorithm’s results, which are always probabilistic and can never be deterministic. So use of AI in the areas where probabilistic results with some error margin, are accepted currently in the world.
What’s the relationship between creativity and AI?
According to neurochemistry, there are few significant differences between the right and left hemispheres of the human brain. The left half of our brain focuses more on reasoning, systematic and logical analysis, while the right half is associated with creativity.
Computer programs developed by artificial intelligence are designed to be logical and systematic, affiliating their grounds with the left half of our brain. This explicitly means that they cannot be impulsive or spontaneous like human creativity, nor even they are sourced.
AI is programmed to process and analyze information in a certain way and achieve a particular or, more precisely, desired result. It cannot deviate from these instructions, and its actions are predictable.
On the other hand, human creativity is unpredictable, complex and often indecipherable. When human brains are inspired to create something new, there’s no clue how the ideas will be manifested and the outcome, so the result remains unpredictable unless it is materialized.
The benefits of AI in the creative process
Just because AI can rival creativity doesn’t mean it’s terrible for all creative processes. As with the advent of novel technology, AI has unique benefits yet ravaging drawbacks, as depicted by AI adepts.
Depending on the type and nature of your work, you might want to take AI as your assisting tool in your creative process. AI programs can help with repetitive tasks mainly involving analysis, data collection, information processing, interpreting and representing.
A creative process is often complicated and intricate, requiring many back-and-forth shuffles between different domains and requirements. AI can automate specific tasks, making the creative process more effective and efficient. For instance, AI can scour the internet for images and information to help with brainstorming.
Moreover, AI can be taken as a tool or a catalyst to support the creative task instead of just totally depending on AI to do it on its own; it is helpful in a way to identify the missing patterns in large data sets in statistical analysis; AI can analyze the enormous amounts of information from a wide variety of sources by systematically filtering it, followed by categorizing and then prioritizing.
AI interprets vast data in graphical representations. It assists humans in identifying connections between seemingly unconnected data, which is quite helpful in drug designing, where AI can identify interactions between the chemistry of different components.
Can AI Replace Human Creativity?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) might revolutionize everything during the forthcoming industrial revolution, serving a diverse range of emerging technologies. Recently, after a turbulent history of successes and failures, ups and downs, these intelligent machines have demonstrated some significant advances in tasks that mainly involve perception, creativity and complex strategic execution.
Some experts argue that the widespread introduction and exposure of AI technologies may cause massive job reductions and greater wealth inequality; however, given some statistical facts and figures, unemployment has decreased, and productivity has increased during the previous industrial and digital revolutions.
Due to its speed and scope, the fourth industrial revolution is an event without precedents in human history. Makridakis predicts that the forthcoming AI-powered process will come into full force within the next twenty years, probably impacting society and firms more than the previous industrial and digital revolutions.
The future world would be utopian or dystopian, that is uncertain, but the tremendous boom in the number of scientific discoveries, areas of application and emerging technologies like biotechnology, 3-D printing, block-chain, virtual and augmented reality, internet of things, smart cities, driverless cars, robotics and AI.
Among all these advanced technologies, AI is expected to affect all industries and companies, enabling extensive organizational interaction and global competition. Schwab proposes that our responsibility is to establish shared values and policies that allow opportunities for all.
According to machine learning experts, AI will be ubiquitous during the forthcoming industrial revolution since it enables entities and processes to become innovative. Those corporate and economic sectors willing to adopt AI strategically will enjoy a competitive advantage over those who do not incorporate this technology timely and adequate.
Lagging in adopting intelligent machine learning will be their choice. Education and soft-skills development will play an essential chapter in AI strategies. In the coming years, deep understanding will remain popular in AI research. AI will be applied incrementally in every research field and industry, producing substantial improvements.
Still, the views on how AI will impact society and firms will remain controversial, similar to the opinions on whether AI will outperform biological intelligence. The fourth industrial revolution promises excellent benefits but entails massive challenges and risks. It seems plausible but remote to achieve the common good globally, requiring global collaboration and shared interests.
In general range opinions, AI cannot replace human creativity; it can only mimic certain aspects of human creativity. But it is inefficient to replace it as a whole. The reason is that creativity is the most dynamic and productive natural capability that is not just about gathering or generating new ideas or solutions. Still, it has innumerable factors and phenomena associated with it so complicatedly that it is nearly impossible for any machine to decipher it fully.
AI might be well aware of situational perspectives, but it is entirely naive of the biochemistry of situational awareness that is unattainable up to this time. It can replicate the collecting, analyzing and processing capacity of the human brain somehow in one way or the other. However, it is inefficient to incorporate emotional, biological, psychological, chemical, social and history of experiences connected to creativity output.
AI can never outrank human creative capacities, yet another alarming aspect of this mechanized panorama is still in the picture. The custom of dependency on machines is expected never to end; in the past, we have seen humans becoming more dependent on machines and faced the consequences of lethargy and stagnation of the body that consequently intersected with human health.
If the same scenario continued in the case of artificial intelligence, the more reliance on a machine’s brain, the more devastating the ingenuity and creative rationale. The stationery neurons of the brain will continue to eat themselves and destroy the overall human persona.
Before that happens, we should be aware of our creative cognition bestowed by nature and never allow any superficial, artificial or automated drivers to drive us.
References:
- https://www.ibm.com/topics/artificial-intelligence
- https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/02/ai-can-catalyze-and-inhibit-
your-creativity-here-is-how/ - https://www.entrepreneur.com/science-technology/is-ai-a-risk-to-creativity-the-answer-is-not-so-simple/439525#:~:text=with%20unexpected%20solutions.-,Artificial%20intelligence%20is%20a%20computer%20program%20or%20software%20that%20simulates,t%20open%20to%20different%20interpretations.
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-creativity-can-replace-human-
threws-the-research-world/ - https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2011/2011.03044.pdf
- Future of Life Institute, “Benefits and risks of artificial intelligence,”
https://futureoflife.org/ background/ benefits-risks-of-artificial-
intelligence/, 2016, accessed March - K. Schwab, The Fourth Industrial Revolution. New York: Crown
Business, 2016
Also, Read: Artificial Intelligence is on its way to Conquer the Art scene
Muniba Usman is a high school teacher and teaching trainer by profession. She has a BS (HONS) in Microbiology and a diploma in Textile and Fashion design. She has a strong passion for research, arts, reading and writing. She has written many scientific articles and fiction stories for children.
