computational creativity
Computational Creativity (CC) – emerging branch of AI that studies and exploits the potential of computers to be more than feature-rich tools, and to act as autonomous creators and co-creators in their own right
• Computers which generate outputs for an external user to evaluate are merely generative in their behavior, and mere generation does not rise to the level of human creativity•
must exhibit an ability to filter its outputs for quality, so that any outputs presented to a user show intentionality and discernment, and it must exhibit an ability to articulate why its outputs may have interesting and unexpected value for its audience
four different criteria for categorizing an answer to a question, or a solution, as creative (Newell, Shaw and Simon, 1983)
four different criteria for categorizing an answer to a question, or a solution, as creative (Newell, Shaw and Simon, 1983)
pastiche
mere appearance of creativity is due to some specifiable slice of the programmer’s own creativity having been imprinted onto the algorithmic workings of the system mimics rather than creates/ no innovation
Exploratory creativity
explores the space as it is defined by the problem, looking for previously undiscovered or unappreciated states of unexpectedly high value
Shortest path can sometimes lead to failure
searching conceptual space defined by implicit rules
AARON: painting robot
Has a specific ‚thinking style‘ = easier for AI
Transformation creativity
actively transforms the space
Surprises
small c
everyday creativity on a mundane scale
big C
exemplary creativity on a historical scale
Components of a neural network:
Creative Ideas
Creative Ideas
• Useful and novel
• Useful: appropriate for the domain in which the idea occurs
The Creative Process (Helmholtz, 1896)
The Creative Process (Helmholtz, 1896)
associative hierarchies
Primary process thinking and creativity
creativity and arousal
simulated annealing
simulated annealing:
1. Start out with high temperature: nodes are going on and off randomly can increase and decrease their contribution to total energy which allows the system to crawl out of local minima
2. Lower temperature: by the time the system freezes, it is likely to be at the global minimum
• A network that anneals periodically (oscillating between high and low temperature): when temperature is high one could say the network is working in a primary fashion and when temperature is low, it is operating in a secondary fashion
the biological analogue of temperature is the inverse for cortical arousal high temperature corresponds to low arousal
Creativity (GRUNER)
• Unique, original, novel + useful
• Deep learning machine programs are now capable of adapting to unexpected situations (self-driving cars)
• Machines are bound to utilitarian algorithms; make decisions without affective and cognitive restraints
1. Combinational creativity
2. Exploratory creativity
3. Transformational creativity
computational creativity
divergent thinking
discovering several possible solutions
• Divergent thinking task used for assessment of domain-general creative cognition
involves generating several possible solutions to an open-ended problem
Brain network interaction during domain-general creative cognition
Brain networks and creative cognition: an integrative framework
• Creative cognition involves dynamic interaction of default + control networks
• Default network influences generation of candidate ideas, but control network can constrain + direct this process to meet task-specific goals via top-down monitoring + executive control
• Important role of Default network in episodic memory retrieval
Memory systems might have key role in generation of candidate ideas
•
• the default network may provide bottom-up evaluations via spontaneously generated and self-referential mechanisms; the control network, in turn, may compare this information to the task goal and modify it via cognitive control mechanisms such as inhibition and selection
Article: Generating original ideas: The neural underpinning of originality (Mayseless
According to the dual model of creativity, the creative process involves a cyclic movement between the process of associative generation of ideas and the process of evaluating these ideas against a benchmark of standards
creativity may reside in the balance between an associative network allowing free flow of ideas (default mode network) and a network supporting the inhibition of irrelevant ideas (executive control network)
hill climbing
A typical process starts with an existing design, perhaps an earlier one that needs to be improved or extended, or a design for a related task. The designer then makes changes to this solution and evaluates them. S/he keeps those changes that work well and discards those that do not and iterates. It terminates when a desired level of performance is met, or when no better solutions can be found—at which point the process may be started again from a different initial solution
Much of the space remains unexplored and many good solutions may be missed
Current machine learning methods also based on it
Neural networks and deep learning follow a gradient that is computed based on known examples of desired behavior the gradient species how the neural network should be adjusted to make it perform slightly better, but it also does not have a global view of the landscape, i.e. where to start and which hill to climb
reinforcement learning starts with an individual solution and then explores modifications around that solution, in order to estimate the gradient
With large enough networks and datasets and computing power, these methods have achieved remarkable successes in recent years
• Creativity Support Tools (CST
tools used by computers that influence, support and enhance creativity
Experts: require tools that enable them to rapidly iterate through + document many different ideas early in creative process
Novices: require low threshold of entry into creative domain because they do not have confidence, skill or motivation to withstand engagement with tool (Garage Band for people who don’t play)
Creativity (Boden)
• Creativity – ability to generate novel, and valuable ideas
Valuable – Interesting, useful, simple, richly complex etc.
Ideas – Concepts, theories, interpretations, sculptures, graphic images etc.
Novel – Novelty can have two importantly different meanings
Difference Historical & psychological novelty
Psychological-Creativity – Novelty that is new to the person who generated it
Historical-Creativity – Novelty that is P-creative and has never occurred before