Art AI Festival 2019 launch programme “Human+Machine” begins with a guest lecture by Prof Gerhard Fischer

  • by Tracy Harwood

    • Prof Gerhard Fischer began the “Human+Machine” launch events for the 2019 Art AI Festival with a lecture on human-computer design and the roles of creative artificial intelligence (AI) – see also https://art-ai.dmu.ac.uk/event/the-human-in-the-design/.  He positioned creative AI firstly with an historical overview (fig 1) which ultimately demonstrated how technology today is indelibly linked with creative practice.

    Fig 1

     

    He then went on to discuss the future of digitalization, stating it is the design trade-offs that lead to creativity but this is an inevitable balance between AI and human centred design (fig 2), providing various examples that illustrate his viewpoint (fig 3).

    Fig 2

     

    Fig 3

     

    In turn, this highlights the differences and similarities between the AI (fig 4) and human-centred design (fig 5) perspectives.

    Fig 4

    Fig 5

     

    There are, however, three basic views of AI among researchers and citizens: utopia, dystopia and realistic (fig 6).

    Fig 6

    The main question this leads to is: just because technology enables us to do something, should it be done?  Gerhard concludes the future is not ‘out there to be discovered’ but it has to be ‘invented and designed’.  He argues there is a need for alternatives to the ‘AI view’ of a digitized future and that approaches used should enhance and empower individuals and societies to become more creative.  And yet, who will be that inventor/designer?  Should this be left to AI utopians (eg., Google, etc.) and how will their successes be measured for the good of humankind as a whole?

     

    In this short video, Gerhard summarizes his talk and viewpoint.

     

     

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