Is ChatGP for creatives?

Well, read this extract first and then think twice. Nick Cave from the Bad Seeds response to a guy who asked ChatGP to replicate a Nick Cave song.

I highlight some key points below with a * making analogies with the creative problem-solving process:

Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite. It is an act of self-murder that destroys all one has strived to produce in the past. It is those dangerous, heart-stopping departures that catapult the artist beyond the limits of what he or she recognises as their known self.

* Self-murder: creativity is the act of creating something novel, not replicating the past, letting go of the norm or what has been done before

* Heart stopping departures: These are moments where we leap from what we know to what might be. To something new. Something never been done before.

This is part of the authentic creative struggle that precedes the invention of a unique lyric of actual value; it is the breathless confrontation with one’s vulnerability, one’s perilousness, one’s smallness, pitted against a sense of sudden shocking discovery;

* Sudden shocking discovery - This is where one, as a researcher or a designer, finds an insight, a fresh, unique discovery about the why, about an emotion, a pain and a related need that people have. This is where empathy in its true form exists. Both empathy for self and for others. It is the "aha" moment.

This is what we humble humans can offer, that AI can only mimic, the transcendent journey of the artist that forever grapples with his or her own shortcomings. This is where human genius resides, deeply embedded within, yet reaching beyond, those limitations.

* Transcendent journey: The moment that one realizes that there is an opportunity to create new meaning, shared insight and leap into the unknown (where the alure of a better place might lie in wait).

Thank-you Nick Cave, your response eloquently describes what a music artist must experience to give birth to a new song.

I do not mean to directly compare the creative act of writing a song with defining new solutions or pathways, as the process is vastly different. However, there are analogies with the work of an artist and that of someone who is tasked with defining innovative solutions.

Conclusion: AI may be able to replicate, copy, reproduce or recreate.

It currently and never will have the human intellect to read and interpret human desires and envisage new pathways. It cannot transcend and make intuitive leaps, it cannot feel or have empathy for others and it cannot create something unique, never been done before that eloquently meets the burning emotional need of a human.