Computer creativity is a matter of agency

It isn't just about the novelty and value of AI-generated artwork

Even when AI makes beautiful, awe-inspiring new artworks, people are understandably reluctant to call it creative. Why? It's because real creativity is an expression of agency, write Dustin Stokes and Elliot Samuel Paul.

 

An up-and-coming visual artist is gaining international fame for making images in response to prompts from curious fans. When asked for “a calm still life in ethereal blue”, the artist replied with this:

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source: @advadnoun on Twitter

Check out the artist’s rendering of “Studio Ghibli landscape”:

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source: @ak92501 on Twitter

The artist is prolific, offering numerous options for any given prompt, including these, inflected through the style of a fellow illustrator, for “a painting of climate change killing humanity, by Greg Rutkowski”:

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source: @RiversHaveWings on Twitter

“A painting of humanity surviving artificial intelligence, by Greg Rutkowski”:

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(source: @RiversHaveWings on Twitter)

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