Goetterfunke: Creativity in Machinae Sapiens. About the Qualitative Shift in Generative AI with a Focus on Text-To-Image

TL;DR

This paper discusses the transformative impact of recent generative AI systems, especially text-to-image models, on creativity, art, and human-AI collaboration, highlighting a qualitative shift in machine creativity and its implications.

Contribution

It analyzes the technological innovations behind current generative AIs and explores the evolving concept of creativity in machines within the machine learning paradigm.

Findings

Generative AIs enable creation of art previously thought human-only.

Current systems foster new forms of human-AI collaborative creativity.

Artificial creativity may lead to independent machine authorship in art.

Abstract

The year 2022 marks a watershed in technology, and arguably in human history, with the release of powerful generative AIs capable of convincingly performing creative tasks. With the help of these systems, anyone can create something that would previously have been considered a remarkable work of art. In human-AI collaboration, the computer seems to have become more than a tool. Many who have made their first contact with current generative AIs see them as "creativity machines" while for others the term "machine creativity" remains an oxymoron. This article is about (the possibility of) creativity in computers within the current Machine Learning paradigm. It outlines some of the key concepts behind the technologies and the innovations that have contributed to this qualitative shift, with a focus on text-to-image systems. The nature of Artificial Creativity as such is discussed, as well as what this might mean for art. AI may become a responsible collaborator with elements of independent machine authorship in the artistic process.