Perspective Chapter: The Creative Surrogate

Abstract

It is not just manufacturing jobs that are being replaced by digital automation: creative careers now face this specter. As generative techniques advance, both for images and text, the application of expert systems will not stop at replacing mundane tasks. Instead “smart” software is making incursions into intellectual fields as diverse as art, design, photography, and authorship. Systematized applications of artificial intelligence are beginning to play new roles in the creative process. Intellectual surrogates are becoming a new front in the centuries-long cultural transformation brought about by technical innovation and automation. Production trends in digital culture suggest that we will be treated, increasingly, to “automagical” software authorship and artistry. If past is prolog, the degree of intellectual dependence on software will be a guarded secret. Human input into creative products may begin to resemble the fruit content of packaged juices, as for example “Contains 2% human input.” The time has come to evaluate the likely consequences of the systematized generation of (formerly) creative products.