201531529

March 13, 2020

¿Can machines be creative?

Human beings and machines have many features in common. For instance, both of them can
process information, receive stimuli and act upon them, and they can both get jobs done that
require goal fulfillment. Machines exist because humans need tools and mechanisms to be able
to deal with a very complex and dynamic world. They created this devices to mimic and replicate
the human brain in order to do jobs, solve problems, and perform tasks that either they cannot do
as efficiently as them, or they do not have the time and resources to do so. They have succeeded
to the point where nowadays, it is not crazy to consider that some machines have intelligent and
learning capacities. Despite the resemblance between the two, machines and humans also have
many differences. This differences rely mainly on the incredible actions that nature allows the
human brain to do, in order to adapt to the ever-changing, dynamic environment that surrounds
us. Creative action is one of these; it is one action that only human brains can perform, and
therefore cannot be replicated in machines.

Creativity can be defined in many different ways, but a good definition for the purpose of
this argumentative piece is the one used by Morr(2019): “creativity is the ability to transcend
traditional ways of thinking or acting, and to develop new and original ideas, methods or
objects.” It does not require speed nor perfection, it requires a reorganization on concepts,
elements and perspectives, into meaningful and useful ways that have an impact capacity. It also
requires originality, which can only be found in nature. The human race has continuously
adapted to the environment through the use of creativity in different contexts, which has allowed
us to overcome different obstacles that nature has imposed on us throughout evolution. It comes
from the need to evolve and adapt to conditions that put us at risk, such as natural disasters,
disease, hunger and pain. Since machines are not exposed to risk conditions, and they lack the
capacity to feel, they do not have the need to evolve, hence they cannot be creative. Creativity
comes from past experiences and from solving problems by using resources in a different context
than the usual one, an ability that machines do not have because they do not need to.
 In this process of facing obstacles and problem solving situations, humans make mistakes
and they can be aware of this. It may not be obvious sometimes, as Bermúdez J.L(10.3-10.4)
mentions, but the existence of social norms and standardized patterns allows for a consciousness
of ones mistakes. People can get negative feedback from others, which allows them to reflect
upon their past actions. This triggers their creativity in the future. When machines make
mistakes, they are not aware of it as humans can potentially be, and they do not have social
norms to follow and reflect upon. This means that the process of making mistakes, facing
unfamiliarity, and reflecting upon it, which is crucial to prompting creativity, is dramatically
different on humans and on machines. Machines fundamentally work and process information
based on pattern recognitions, meaning that they require familiarity in order to accomplish their
objectives. Furthermore, machines cannot be programmed to reflect upon their mistakes, because
this would require domain-general cognitive mechanisms, and there is no such thing as that. As
Dorrance(2019) mentions, “there is no objective measure of success in the highest realms of
achievement”.

As Dorrance(2019) mentions, creativity is about changing quality standards that provide

notions of what things should be. But “what things should be” is a very subjective, dynamic, and
non-universal concept. It is different in every field and context. These three characteristics
(subjectivity, dynamism, and non-universality) are unknown to machines, since they are
objective, they follow universal rules applied to specific domains, they are significantly more
rigid than humans, and they do not have personalities and feelings. They cannot understand and
process notions of morality, nor they can reflect upon how things should be, so they cannot
change and improve quality standards, meaning that they are incapable of creative action.

As the reader may be thinking at this point of the text, the concept of creativity is very
subjective and ambiguous. As Dorrance (2019) mentions, a community has to accept ideas as
good for them to count as creative. This means it needs an approval from society in order to
exist, which requires external judgement from others. The judgement process is a complex one,
and it applies a series of preconceived notions, in addition to depend on one’s personality and
perception. However, it can be generally stated that judgement has a greater objectivity when the
conditions of the subject being judged are closer to the ones of the user that is judging. In this
order of ideas, for machines to be creative, they would need to be judged by humans, since
machines have a lack of emotions, feelings and personalities, so they do not have the ability to
judge. However, this would mean that the judgement is not very objective, since machines are
structurally and existentially different from humans. To wrap up, creativity is not present in
machines because they cannot be judged objectively by humans, and in order to exist, creativity
needs to be judged.

It can be concluded that machines cannot be creative because they do not have abilities
and skills that nature gives to humans for them to adapt to critical situations. They are also
incapable of changing quality standards that provide notions of what things should be, they lack
the ability to reflect upon their mistakes and find insights that generate improvement in a creative
and resourceful way, and they do not have ideas and outputs that are susceptible of being judged
in an objective way in order to be qualified as creative. Human brains are the only processing
devices with the ability to be creative, and this is one of the main reasons why the human race
has survived in the world for so many years, and has been able to manufacture such amazing
devices as machines.

Bibliography

Bermúdez J.L. 10.3-10.4. Cognitive Science: An Introduction to the Science of the World

Dorrance, S., 2019. A Philosopher Argues That An AI Can’T Be An Artist. [online] MIT
Technology Review. Available at: <https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612913/a-philosopher-
argues-that-an-ai-can-never-be-an-artist/> [Accessed 14 March 2020].

Morr, K., 2019. What Is Creativity? The Ultimate Guide To Understanding Today’S Most
Important Ability. - 99Designs. [online] 99designs. Available at:
<https://en.99designs.com.co/blog/creative-thinking/what-is-creativity/> [Accessed 14 March
2020].