Computational Creativity: AI and the Art of Ingenuity World Science Festival

CREATIVITY: IT'S AT THE HEART OF WHO WE HUMANS ARE… WE HUMANS ARE SPECIAL, RIGHT? Can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece? OVER SOME 40,000 YEARS, HUMAN CREATIVITY HAS EXPLODED – FROM DRAWINGS ON CAVE WALLS THROUGH THE GREAT ART OF CENTURIES TO COME…. NOW, SCIENTISTS -- AND ARTISTS –ARE ASKING CAN A ROBOT TRULY IMAGINE AN ORIGINAL MASTERWORK? COMPUTATIONAL CREATIVITY IS LEADING US TO ASK NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT HUMAN CREATIVITY. IS THIS ESSENTIAL HUMAN TRAIT TRULY UNIQUE? WILL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BE A COMPETITOR? OR CAN IT BE A COLLABORATOR, HELPING US TOWARD STILL UNIMAGINED CREATIONS? SCHAEFER: My first guest is a member of Google Brain's Magenta team. He is currently working on neural network models of sound and music and recently produced a synthesizer that designed its own sounds. SCHAEFER: Also with us, is an Assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He focuses on several surprising creative domains including the culinary arts and fashion and the theoretical foundations of creativity. SCHAEFER: Also with us is an Associate Professor of psychological and brain science at Dartmouth College. He's interested in the neural basis of imagination and in the evolution of human creativity. A former research fellow at MIT's Media lab and artist in residence at Google, please welcome Sougwen Chung.