The Intersection of Human and Artificial Creativity

The rise of Industry 4.0 – the proliferation of cyber-physical systems, artificial intelligence, big data, and automation – has turned attention, once again, to the interaction between humans and robots . Captivating attention in both academic and public spheres, the debate on how humans and robots interact largely centres around the interplay between human and artificial cognition. The human-robot cognition interaction fuels practical inquiries into the formation of high-performing human-robot teams, leveraging robots to enhance human cognition, and the capacity for robots to overtake human cognition. At the heart of these conversations, however, lies a critical question – what does the Future of Work look like? (see, for example, OECD, 2017). As robots take on more and more tasks previously performed by humans, where does that leave the human worker?

Artificial intelligence became Beethoven: how do listeners and music professionals perceive artificially composed music?

Purpose Artificial intelligence (AI) has reached creative industries such as music. Algorithms now produce high-quality artistic content (e.g. original songs), for hedo consumption and utilitarian business applications. While available literature to-date focuses mainly on technological development and applications, this paper aims to address the resulting research gap by investigating listeners’ perceptions towards music composed by AI. Design/methodology/approach First, an online survey was conducted with 446 respondents and compared perceptions of music professionals (n = 72) and non-professional listeners (n = 374). Following this, a 2 × 2 laboratory experiment was conducted, where 86 participants listened to songs composed by AI but were presented different narratives regarding the composition process (human versus AI). Findings Overall, results from the online survey indicated a rather negative perception, low purchase intention for AI music and a negative credibility perception of musicians using AI. Findings from the experiment indicated no significant differences between the groups, suggesting that the awareness of the use of automation did not influence the perception towards the music. Originality/value This paper contributes by highlighting the current perception of both listeners and music professionals towards the application of artificial creativity in music composition. Furthermore, it contributes to the existing literature on artificial creativity applied in music, by providing evidence of its impact on listeners’ perception. Results reveal the importance of further investigation on the topic.

Artificial Intelligence Technologies and Related Urban Planning and Development Concepts: How Are They Perceived and Utilized in Australia?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a powerful technology with an increasing popularity and applications in areas ranging from marketing to banking and finance, from agriculture to healthcare and security, from space exploration to robotics and transport, and from chatbots to artificial creativity and manufacturing. Although many of these areas closely relate to the urban context, there is limited understanding of the trending AI technologies and their application areas—or concepts—in the urban planning and development fields. Similarly, there is a knowledge gap in how the public perceives AI technologies, their application areas, and the AI-related policies and practices of our cities. This study aims to advance our understanding of the relationship between the key AI technologies (n = 15) and their key application areas (n = 16) in urban planning and development. To this end, this study examines public perceptions of how AI technologies and their application areas in urban planning and development are perceived and utilized in the testbed case study of Australian states and territories. The methodological approach of this study employs the social media analytics method, and conducts sentiment and content analyses of location-based Twitter messages (n = 11,236) from Australia. The results disclose that: (a) digital transformation, innovation, and sustainability are the most popular AI application areas in urban planning and development; (b) drones, automation, robotics, and big data are the most popular AI technologies utilized in urban planning and development, and; (c) achieving the digital transformation and sustainability of cities through the use of AI technologies—such as big data, automation and robotics—is the central community discussion topic.

The Sustainability of Artificial Intelligence: An Urbanistic Viewpoint from the Lens of Smart and Sustainable Cities

The popularity and application of artificial intelligence (AI) are increasing rapidly all around the world—where, in simple terms, AI is a technology which mimics the behaviors commonly associated with human intelligence. Today, various AI applications are being used in areas ranging from marketing to banking and finance, from agriculture to healthcare and security, from space exploration to robotics and transport, and from chatbots to artificial creativity and manufacturing. More recently, AI applications have also started to become an integral part of many urban services. Urban artificial intelligences manage the transport systems of cities, run restaurants and shops where every day urbanity is expressed, repair urban infrastructure, and govern multiple urban domains such as traffic, air quality monitoring, garbage collection, and energy. In the age of uncertainty and complexity that is upon us, the increasing adoption of AI is expected to continue, and so its impact on the sustainability of our cities. This viewpoint explores and questions the sustainability of AI from the lens of smart and sustainable cities, and generates insights into emerging urban artificial intelligences and the potential symbiosis between AI and a smart and sustainable urbanism. In terms of methodology, this viewpoint deploys a thorough review of the current status of AI and smart and sustainable cities literature, research, developments, trends, and applications. In so doing, it contributes to existing academic debates in the fields of smart and sustainable cities and AI. In addition, by shedding light on the uptake of AI in cities, the viewpoint seeks to help urban policymakers, planners, and citizens make informed decisions about a sustainable adoption of AI.

Measuring creativity: an account of natural and artificial creativity

Despite the recent upsurge of interest in the investigation of creativity, the question of how to measure creativity is arguably underdiscussed. The aim of this paper is to address this gap, proposing a multidimensional account of creativity which identifies problem-solving, evaluation, and naivety as measurable features that are common among creative processes. The benefits that result from the adoption of this model are twofold: integrating discussions on creativity in various domains and offering the tools to assess creativity across systems of different kinds. By situating creativity within this framework, I aim to contribute to a non-anthropocentric, more comprehensive understanding of the notion, and to debates on natural and artificial creativity.

Recent Developments Regarding Painting Robots for Research in Automatic Painting, Artificial Creativity, and Machine Learning

E-David (Electronic Drawing Apparatus for Vivid Image Display) is a system for controlling a variety of painting machines in order to create robotic paintings. This article summarizes the hardware set-up used for painting, along with recent developments, lessons learned from past painting machines, as well as plans for new approaches. We want to apply e-David as a platform for research towards improving automatic painting and to explore machine creativity. We present different painting machines, from small low-cost plotters to large industrial robots, and discuss the benefits and limitations of each type of platform and present their applicability to different tasks within the domain of robotic painting and artificial creativity research. A unified control interface with a scripting language allows users a simplified usage of different e-David-like machines. Furthermore, we present our system for automated stroke experimentation and recording, which is an advance towards allowing the machine to autonomously learn about brush dynamics. Finally, we also show how e-David can be used by artists “in the field” for different exhibitions.