Reflecting on the Boundaries between Machine Intelligence and Human Creativity

Thought

Considering the potentials of artificial and human intelligences merging or co-evolving.

Note

Are we architecting our own obsolescence by advancing AI or collaborating towards a higher consciousness?

Analysis

As we create increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligences, we grapple with what it means for human creativity and intelligence. Will yet-undiscovered depths of our mind, aided by AI, push us into a creative renaissance, or are we inching toward obsolescence as cognitive machines surpass our capabilities?

This thought orbits the interplay between human ingenuity and machine calculation, a dichotomy reminiscent of dual-process theories within cognitive psychology, suggesting that our thinking is a ballet of both methodical, logical processing and rapid, intuitive insight. Reflecting upon Arthur Koestler's concept of bisociation—the connecting of unrelated frames of thought—may AI eventually master this art, which we often believe is solely human?

Complement this with the perspective that bisociation undergirds creativity, and we might wonder if a sufficiently advanced AI could not just simulate, but fundamentally embody creativity by forming novel bisociations beyond human scope.

Books

“The Society of Mind” by Marvin Minsky
"The Art of Creation" by Arthur Koestler
"Human Frontiers" by Michael Bhaskar

Papers

“The Frame Problem” by Daniel C. Dennett, where he discusses the challenges of AI understanding context
"Artificial Creativity: A Synthetic Approach to the Study of Creative Behaviour" by Geraint Wiggins, which explores AI and creativity

Mental Models

Dual-process theory: Reflects on how cognitive processing might be partitioned in AI as it is in humans
Bisociation: Key for creativity; can AI navigate this space, and how would human-AI collaborations look in this context?