On Creativity and Open-Endedness

TL;DR

This paper explores the relationship between Open-Endedness in Artificial Life and Creativity in Computational Creativity, aiming to clarify their connection and foster interdisciplinary dialogue for advancing artificial innovation.

Contribution

It provides historical context, reviews existing work, and proposes a research agenda to clarify and connect OE and creativity across ALife and CC fields.

Findings

Highlights similarities and differences between OE and creativity.

Identifies potential synergy effects for interdisciplinary research.

Proposes questions to foster dialogue between ALife and CC communities.

Abstract

Artificial Life (ALife) as an interdisciplinary field draws inspiration and influence from a variety of perspectives. Scientific progress crucially depends, then, on concerted efforts to invite cross-disciplinary dialogue. The goal of this paper is to revitalize discussions of potential connections between the fields of Computational Creativity (CC) and ALife, focusing specifically on the concept of Open-Endedness (OE); the primary goal of CC is to endow artificial systems with creativity, and ALife has dedicated much research effort into studying and synthesizing OE and artificial innovation. However, despite the close proximity of these concepts, their use so far remains confined to their respective communities, and their relationship is largely unclear. We provide historical context for research in both domains, and review the limited work connecting research on creativity and OE explicitly. We then highlight specific questions to be considered, with the eventual goals of (i) decreasing conceptual ambiguity by highlighting similarities and differences between the concepts of OE and creativity, (ii) identifying synergy effects of a research agenda that encompasses both concepts, and (iii) establishing a dialogue between ALife and CC research.