Genesis: A Creation Story in Collaboration With an Artificial Intelligence

Jens Knappe runs a photo agency and has been using systems with self-learning algorithms, with artificial intelligence, for about ten years: initially for the automatic recognition and classification of the agency's image inventory and, for some time now, also such systems that independently create CGIs (computer-generated images). Therefore, he was among the first to put OpenAI's novel "text-to-image" system DALL E 2 through rigorous testing for possible errors, potential dangers and also in view of its possibilities, before it was unleashed on humanity. From the very first images the system produced, it was clear that this was a milestone of epochal proportions, leaving its predecessors far behind. This is undoubtedly only a snapshot in an exponential, almost explosive development. But an important one. Because this is where the human claim to sole representation of creativity comes under pressure.

DALL E 2 is part of the most successful Large Language Model to date "GPT3" and therefore can draw on a large part of what has been published on the Internet as its "educational treasure". What could be more obvious than to feed the system with the grand narratives, scientific theories, ancient and modern myths and future visions of humankind and see what comes out? GENESIS, a subjectively colored creation story based on human myths, was the guideline for the test program to AI: this book is a substrate of this systematic challenge to its "knowledge" and "creativity". It is a glimpse into a "black box," since while the technical methods that can be used to improve the performance of these self-learning neural networks which mimic the human brain are being discovered with increasing precision, one question remains unanswered: Why? For what reason are they getting better? Why do the sentences that a chatbot spits out, lining up one word after another according to a probability calculation, become more and more similar to the communication of a real person? So much so, in fact, that even programmers and engineers in developing companies with a sober, prosaic state of mind are increasingly getting the feeling that their computer programs have gained consciousness and sentience.

Why do pixels generated according to just such probability calculations, placed next to other pixels, result in an overall image that appears to be ever more coherent and intelligently composed? Images that appear on the screen a few seconds after the input of a descriptive text and where one can hardly escape the impression that one is dealing with a highly intelligent and educated, creative counterpart on the other side? Machine or not. This book gives an insight into the Brave New World of Artificial Creativity.