Recently, the government allocated NOK one billion to invest in artificial intelligence (AI). Reactions were mixed. Some consider the amount insufficient, while others celebrate it as a milestone. At the same time, many are characterized by concern. Artists, musicians, writers and many other professions are beginning to feel threatened by the algorithms. With algorithms that can generate images, text and music of remarkable quality, fears about job security are growing. This gives us reason to reflect: Will AI replace human creativity? Will we become redundant? Art and intelligence When Paul McCartney recorded the legendary song “Yesterday” in 1965, it was the result of a long creative process. The melody came to McCartney in a dream and the lyrics were originally a silly text about scrambled eggs! At first he was unsure whether he had really written the melody himself, or whether he had unconsciously “stolen” it from someone else. It took McCartney a full two years to rework “Yesterday” into one of the most beautiful love ballads ever. “Yesterday” had not been created with artificial intelligence. The song had to have time and human playfulness to move from dream to reality. Had the Beatles used artificial intelligence in their songwriting, it is not certain that any of us today would have heard of them. Their creative process was part of the recipe for success. But does that necessarily mean that AI inhibits creativity? History shows that when new technology emerges, it often begins by copying what it replaces. This phenomenon repeated itself when photographs were introduced around 1840. “From today painting is dead,” said the French painter Delaroche when he saw a photograph for the first time around 1840. But the art of painting survived and continued to flourish. The photographs freed painters from accurately reproducing reality. They could now express personal feelings, contemporary themes and abstract ideas. The theater world experienced similar changes when film took the stage. At first the death of the theater was predicted, but it later led to a new golden age for performing arts. It is typical that new technology first imitates the old before it explores new possibilities. KI is no exception. At first we are fascinated by AI that can seemingly match human capabilities, but the real magic will happen when we discover the unique possibilities this technology gives us. New art forms Think back to historical geniuses such as William Shakespeare and Johann Sebastian Bach. Why didn’t Shakespeare write novels, and why didn’t Bach compose symphonies? The greatest storyteller in the world should then manage to come up with at least one novel? The reason is that those guys lived before these art forms came into existence. AI can now generate both symphonies and novels, because it has access to extensive datasets describing these forms. Nevertheless, creativity is not only about the new, it must also have substance and value. The world is already full of art that goes unnoticed. Many painters, musicians and dancers we have never heard of. There are 38 million songs on various streaming services that have never been played. The same happens with art created by AI. There will be an inflation of products. What really counts are people who recognize the value and give it life. I’d rather go to a concert and experience real people conveying their lives and feelings through music, regardless of how fancy the AI might be. And I get more floored by seeing a Munch painting than by seeing thousands of random AI-generated images. Munch depicts something deeply human. The algorithms don’t. Artificial intelligence can probably make a song “in the style of the Beatles”, but no one will bother to hear it. AI art is quite impressive, but also quite uninteresting. The competition is intensifying AI has now found its way into all subject areas, not just art subjects. The result is a sea of possibilities and solutions. Distinguishing the valuable from the unimportant requires human judgment. Creativity is about solving problems in new ways, but when AI gives us thousands of proposed solutions, the risk of choosing the wrong one also increases. The big problems rarely have clear facet answers; it’s about finding the most appropriate answer. This requires assessment and weighing which the algorithms cannot handle alone. Human creativity remains crucial in these subjects, because it is people who are responsible for finding new solutions. AI can be a powerful tool in the process, no matter what field you are in. Nevertheless, AI alone is not sufficient. When Swedish Jan Boklöv introduced the V-style in ski jumping in the 1980s, he changed the sport of jumping completely and won the World Cup superbly. At the start, only he jumped V-style. But when everyone else also adopted the new style, the competition evened out. Likewise, success in using AI will depend on creative approaches. It’s not just about using AI, but about using it in unique ways. Many people can play the guitar, but only McCartney was able to write “Yesterday”. Another Beatle, John Lennon, stated that creativity is a gift, but pointed out that “it doesn’t come through if the air is cluttered”. Today, there is a lot of clutter that needs to be cleared up around artificial intelligence. Our challenge is to remove this noise and be able to apply the new technology in the situations we find ourselves in. That is why I hope that the promised billion does not only go to technologists. AI should be a topic in all occupational groups, so that we can explore new areas of use and utilize the creative potential that technology gives us. Technology can be an important partner, but ultimately it is human creativity that will give us the greatest competitive advantage.
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The fear of the robot pop – Speech
