A Franchise Called Creativity

Will Artificial Intelligence result in an explosion of creativity or will it turn us into mindless drones?

Artificial intelligence is here and so are numerous theories about humans being replaced by machines. However, one industry deemed safe from the clutches of the replacement narrative is creative design. It seems most machine-created designs have limitations, and that a human touch adds much more to the quality than a machine ever could.

This could be attributed in part to empathetic traits human beings possess as opposed to finalising a visual design based on digital inputs alone. But how long before AI comes up to speed, and enters the realms of creativity is a question being explored relentlessly.

I am weary of the debate of AI-vs-humans. It seems every new conversation or news article either seems to extol technical excellence or incite fear to the point of mental exsanguination.

I am an aspiring musician myself and to me the fact that a machine can create music with digital inputs is an exciting proposition. The reinforcement it can present to a creative mind holds much allure. In my multiple readings on the music, I couldn’t help but see an interesting analogy of music creation, how artistic creativity has evolved through the years.

In the dawn of 1920’s, Steinway Pianos crafted and sold more than 400,000 pianos. That was the age where the only way a household could enjoy music was when it was played live, as part of a play, a festival, or if they owned the said instruments themselves at home.

Such was home entertainment, which involved buying expensive equipment and taking rigorous lessons before you could produce music fit to entertain.

The amount of creativity required to create a musical piece is significantly high and this was mostly relegated only to individuals who could spend enough time and effort to that end. Amidst the myriad piano makers, Steinway led the market, a legacy it maintains to this day, although the company seems to have fallen on hard times.

The decline of piano-making can be attributed to the advent of radios. With more and more people gaining access to home entertainment systems in the form of a radio, people no longer needed cumbersome lessons, or own heavy equipment at home which needed special care. As more and more adapted to radios in their households, the need for pianos gradually decreased, thus eroding the niche art of piano making. As of 2015, Steinway sold only 33,818 pieces of pianos.

The invention of television did the same to radio, bringing a further shift in the way home entertainment was perceived, a concept immortalised by the popular track ‘Video killed the Radio Star.’ Although the radio still exists, a significant portion of home entertainment media was eventually dominated by television. As ubiquitous as the television became, another challenge awaited the media in the form of internet.

The boom in content after the advent of internet has been exponential. Like the proverbial Prometheus’ fire, it has enabled every layman to potentially become popular, create content and share with the world at the click of a button, or a swab of the finger.

The internet, photography through cellphones, and online sharing has provided a much-needed platform through which people can share content on the go. Creativity no longer rests in the realm of the artists. Technology has made everyone into a potential artist, so much so that it has become impossible for a human being to consume all of that in his/her lifetime — whether the content is good, bad, or mediocre is a debate for another day. Technology essentially opened up multiple avenues in the field of creative expression.

It is my hope that artificial intelligence too will become a medium similar to the internet. The democratisation of such a technology can yield unprecedented highs in human creativity. While public implementation is still a long-ways off, AI has more or less entered our domains through the myriad cellphone apps and similar augmentations. We can cite numerous examples of how AI has helped organise our lives better, provide valuable suggestions, and improve our quality of life marginally.

AI tools have become invaluable in the realms of artistic creativity as well. Photography, combination filters, writing aids, musical notation tools, tempo matchers, and combination filters have been of great help to the artist.

For the most part, I too have benefitted considerably from using digital tools. However, my experience as a musician has been somewhat different. As a guitarist, in the course of my practice, I execute a specific bend of the guitar strings, which gives songs an additional edge, a punch, something I employ in all the covers I make.

Recently I started using an application, which helps me compose and keeps a check on timing, providing instant feedback of my playing. It tells me where I’ve missed and where I am going wrong. While it has its share of pitfalls, all in all, it is an excellent tool for a learner and composer. There is also an AI element in this, which recognises portions where I lag and then tailors the exercises in such a way that the difficult parts are automatically slowed down, helping me cope.

But every time I execute a bend, a warning notification tells me that I am hitting the wrong notes. For the first few times, I genuinely believed that I was hitting the wrong note. However, when I attempted playing the same with the original soundtrack, it sounded great. This was when I realised that the fault does not lie with me but with the tool itself, due to its limited parameters and its inability to process ‘aberrations’.

For in essence, my unique contribution to a song is considered an aberration by its templates. A few months of such practice and in all probability, I will lose my ability to execute note bends.

And so I arrive at the question, one more philosophical than objective, as to how a technology like AI will function in the realms of creativity?

A big advantage of AI technology is the ability to create frameworks around complex teaching methods. Previously, traditional analog metronomes and foot-tapping were the norm of learning the rhythm of any instrument. However, some of the best forms of music came from digressions of the norm. Some of the best musicians in the world claim to have little to no theoretical knowledge.

I will not lie, for I myself have benefitted from the frameworks technology has had to offer. My rumination is internal, for I am aware that a larger number of guitarists will result in the explosion of art, when they can all collaborate.

But now we have sophisticated software that can time moves appropriately and aid in learning. Will we see fewer Hendrixes, Petrucci’s and Amotts? When there are templates and frameworks around every creative art form, when there are machines that can replicate parameters of song construction (which already exist) and when the large-scale democratisation of such products occur, what influence will it have on creative arts?

This idea of artificial intelligence negating things unique about potentially human beings concerns me, in my own irrational fashion. Will the wave of automation that improves efficiencies by manifolds take the panache out of the art itself?

If creativity becomes a readymade solution, will there be anything creative left in the world?