Creativity and the Machine. How Technology Reshapes Language.

Abstract

Recent advancements in AI and robotics have provided the means to design, program and assemble machines which appear to be able to produce artworks as different as portraits, songs, poems and movie scripts.Such technologies are known as creative machines.In scientific communications and journal articles the functioning of creative machines is frequently described with words which usually apply to human aesthetic experiences.This may result in blurring the line that separates human and machine creativity.Indeed, it sometimes leads to wonder if human artists are bound to be replaced by creative machines.Such scenario, however, appears to be an illusion generated by the way we adapt ordinary language to speak effectively of creative machines.By referring to the philosophical debate on machine aesthetics I try and develop a critical standpoint which may help clarify what happens, when words pertaining to the domain of artistic creativity are used to describe the functioning of machines.In sum, I argue that interpreting creative machines as mediums of human artistic experience may prove useful to see through the ordinary use of language and avoid confusion, misconceptions and irrational expectations.