Artificial Creativity and General Intelligence

Abstract

It is hard to deny that the notions of creativity and intelligence are inherently connected. But what does this correlation amount to? Is creativity a necessary desideratum of intelligence? On the other hand, does the fact of being intelligent necessarily imply being creative as well? The aim of this paper is to explore these questions and to contribute to the discussion regarding the connections between the notions of creativity and intelligence. In order to do so, I draw on the results obtained from a study on the public perceptions and attitudes in relation to the use of AI in the creative sector conducted at the University of Nottingham. Through this discussion I aim to test the hypothesis that the key features of creativity correspond to aspects that are essential for the realization of Artificial General Intelligence, e.g. flexibility, domain knowledge, and common-sense. After having illustrated the parallels between the two concepts, I contend that while creativity is a crucial component of general intelligence, the constituents needed to build an AGI may not be sufficient to design creative artificial systems. I close the paper by tentatively suggesting how the motivations behind the discontent expressed by the participants against creative AI can be explained through the uncanny valley phenomenon.