I was considering the issue of artificial intelligence and creativity, and why what I recognize as creativity just doesn’t show up. The idea of creativity is, at best, vague and subjective.

And then I thought a bit about how what we presently call artificial intelligences are trained. Simply put, the training data that these collections of algorithms are trained on is a big part of it, as well as how the training is done. That’s the technical side, and if you really want to drill down into that, leave a comment below and I’ll find some well written stuff. Basically, the AI tries to stay in that 68% area while creativity occurs across 100% at varying rates.

The more interesting idea to pursue, in my opinion, is how we as a society perceive creativity. Music, as we who are old enough to remember the 70s and prior, was very, very different – because the companies were looking for a sound rather than the sound. Nowadays, record companies – do we still call them that? – want specific things because people want… specific things. So, from my perspective, a lack of creativity in popular music might be true. That could be balanced by social media stuff that artists do – please continue – though the first YouTube example that comes to mind is Justin What’s-his-name.

Part of this personal perspective may be a factor of age. I’ve seen more stuff than someone half my age. Truth is, I’ve probably seen more stuff than people older than me too because of the interesting life I’ve lived. Still, I have to admit my own bias.

I’m curious what others think about creativity themselves – and what they think of creativity with artificial intelligence. Feel free to comment below, or send a link to a friend who might have some ideas. I’m genuinely curious what others think about this because I know I don’t have the answers here. I just end up with more questions.