Rob Saunders - LIACS

Title: 
Computational Creativity

Abstract:
Creativity is one of the most highly prized faculties of human intelligence. The history of speculation about intelligent machines is mirrored by a fascination with the possibility of mechanical creativity. From the myths and legends of antiquity to the Golden Age of Automata in the 18th Century, the achievements of mechanical wonders were often paired with amazement at the performance of apparently creative acts. During the 20th Century the fascination with creative machines continued and at the dawn of the Computer Age the prospect of computationally modelling creative thinking was proposed as one of the “grand challenges” in the prospectus for the field of Artificial Intelligence. In the past 60 years, the field of Artificial Intelligence has seen significant progress in realising the goal of building computational creativity, from early Discovery Systems to the latest advances in Deep Learning. Like intelligence, however, the notion of creativity is an essentially social construct. Much work remains if creative machines are ever to become a reality, both in terms of technical advances and the integration of such machines into society. In addition, the development of machines capable of acting in ways that would be considered creative if performed by a human, will challenge our understanding of what it means to be creative. This talk will explore the history of creative machines and the prospects for the future of computational creativity research.