GUEST ESSAY: Welcome to the machine -- yes, AI is capable of creative output

Recently I innocently posted online (okay, maybe not so innocently) a few graphic images from a hot and hip open-source AI image generator called Stable Diffusion 2. The reason for this was an ongoing debate I have had for years with an architect friend of mine. My position is that AI will eventually (in our lifetimes) compete successfully with human creativity in essentially every conceivable field. My architect friend, and most people, do not agree. I wanted to show my friend that the AI could create a pleasing, surprising and imaginative graphic for the cover of a hypothetical book on modern architecture, or perhaps a banner ad for an architecture conference. So I typed the following into the text box on the front page of the Stable Diffusion 2 website: "architect imagination, building with clean lines, impressionist".