Do Robots Dream of Digital Sleep?

Abstract

AI is playing an increasingly important role in everyday life. But can AI actually design? This paper takes its point of departure from Philip K Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and refers to Google’s DeepDream software, and other AI techniques such as GANs, Progressive GANs, CANs and StyleGAN, that can generate increasingly convincing images, a process often described as ‘dreaming’. It notes that although generative AI does not possess consciousness, and therefore cannot literally dream, it can still be a powerful design tool that becomes a prosthetic extension to the human imagination. Although the use of GANs and other deep learning AI tools is still in its infancy, we are at the dawn of an exciting – but also potentially terrifying – new era for architectural design. Most importantly, the paper concludes, the development of AI is also helping us to understand human intelligence and 'creativity'.