2 ms·

I think at the moment there is an important difference that the OP is talking about, namely the ability of the artist to channel their intention into the work.

by agency 5y ago

I think at the moment there is an important difference that the OP is talking about, namely the ability of the artist to channel their intention into the work. I think even early synthesizers offered a degree of control which even if the results were other-worldly were still channeling the artist’s intention. At the risk of wading into the murky waters of defining “what is art,” I don’t really feel like feeding an ML model a short sequence of words is “art-ing.” However I think you’re right that in the long run these types of technology will become another tool in the artist’s toolbox and are not in danger of replacing artists. But I also think the OP’s criticism is valid. I suppose you could argue this is a bit like early criticism of photography as “not art” and that feeding the model is like picking what to photograph and how to frame it and such, but I still feel like there is a key difference in terms of the ability to have an intention and to have some ability to foresee how that intention will be realized in the work. Feeding a model inputs and guess-and-checking the results until you get something cool does feel “less artistic” to me.

api 5y ago
Intention would be done linguistically then. What happens if you write poetry into this thing? Prose? Song lyrics? Stream of consciousness? Here's an idea: freestyle rap MC with the output of the text fed into this projected on a screen. Wait until the ghost hunters get hold of this shit. That'll be fun.
- agency 5y ago
  I think it would be one thing if these tools worked such that with experience you gained a kind of intuitive understanding of how your inputs map to the outputs and a finesse in crafting that poetry for the machine. But based on my (limited) understanding on ML models I have a hard time imagining that is the case. These models are complete black boxes, where a small perturbation of the input can create large, unpredictable variations in output. That makes me think that there is a strong “guess and check” aspect to these creations. And I think tools with that characteristic are limited and frustrating to create with, because you cannot channel your intention effectively through that unpredictable mapping of input to output. But I have no doubt these tools will continue to evolve in the direction of being able to be wielded more intentionally.

by agency 5y ago

api 5y ago

Intention would be done linguistically then. What happens if you write poetry into this thing? Prose? Song lyrics? Stream of consciousness? Here's an idea: freestyle rap MC with the output of the text fed into this projected on a screen. Wait until the ghost hunters get hold of this shit. That'll be fun.

agency 5y ago
I think it would be one thing if these tools worked such that with experience you gained a kind of intuitive understanding of how your inputs map to the outputs and a finesse in crafting that poetry for the machine. But based on my (limited) understanding on ML models I have a hard time imagining that is the case. These models are complete black boxes, where a small perturbation of the input can create large, unpredictable variations in output. That makes me think that there is a strong “guess and check” aspect to these creations. And I think tools with that characteristic are limited and frustrating to create with, because you cannot channel your intention effectively through that unpredictable mapping of input to output. But I have no doubt these tools will continue to evolve in the direction of being able to be wielded more intentionally.