Dr. Ahmed Elgammal

Billions of dollars are being invested in replicating the human brain. But will machine eventually totally replicate a human, including creativity? In this interview, we are asking Dr. Ahmed Elgammal, director of the Art & AI Laboratory, Rutgers University, and Founder & CEO, Artrendex about how AI, human creativity and art intelligence can coexist. How far AI potentially can go and how human art can benefit from it?

MT: If technology takes over creativity, what is left for humans? In other words, how will AI impact human creativity?

AE: Technology will not take over creativity. Technology is becoming more creative, which is good. It’s gonna be always a way to expand human creativity and allow humans, artists, writers, and musicians to be able to explore new ideas. So, it will never take over human creativity because of a simple reason: when you make music or make artwork, you make it for another human to consume it or to appreciate it, so, if the machine makes this kind of creative products, finally, the human is the one, who is going to be receiving it and consuming it. So, there will always be a human in the loop. You can’t imagine a scenario when human is left behind and the machine is taking over creativity because humans are the consumers of this creativity at the end.

MT: What human capabilities can’t be duplicated by a computer?
AE: Creativity is a very complex thing because when you create a piece of art, for example, it’s not just that you create a beautiful painting, no, you are communicating something, you are communicating some idea. So there is a social context, there is a historical context, there is a message that you wanna say. And it is very hard for the machine to do. A machine might be able to do a beautiful thing to put on the wall, but this is not art. It can make a beautiful piece of music, maybe, but, again, it might lack a meaning. So, that what is missing and will be missing for a long time that a machine will not be able to do – to communicate some message in the arts.

Listen to the full interview on our podcast and youtube channel.