Ted Chiang, Acclaimed Literary Author & Microsoft Technical Writer, Succinctly Explains Why AI Can't Create Art

UPDATE, September 9: Added link to Chiang's novella, The Lifecycle of Software Objects, which is included in his book Exhalation.

Can AI create art? Ted Chiang is quite possibly the best qualified person in the world to answer this question, being both a technical writer for Microsoft and also an acclaimed literary writer, whose incredibly thought-provoking and moving science fiction stories transcend the genre. (One of his stories is the basis of the great 2017 movie Arrival.) 

In the New Yorker, Ted Chiang has an incredibly succinct way of explaining that, no, AI in itself probably can't create art:

Art is notoriously hard to define, and so are the differences between good art and bad art. But let me offer a generalization: art is something that results from making a lot of choices. This might be easiest to explain if we use fiction writing as an example. When you are writing fiction, you are—consciously or unconsciously—making a choice about almost every word you type; to oversimplify, we can imagine that a ten-thousand-word short story requires something on the order of ten thousand choices. When you give a generative-A.I. program a prompt, you are making very few choices; if you supply a hundred-word prompt, you have made on the order of a hundred choices.

If an A.I. generates a ten-thousand-word story based on your prompt, it has to fill in for all of the choices that you are not making. There are various ways it can do this. One is to take an average of the choices that other writers have made, as represented by text found on the Internet; that average is equivalent to the least interesting choices possible, which is why A.I.-generated text is often really bland. Another is to instruct the program to engage in style mimicry, emulating the choices made by a specific writer, which produces a highly derivative story. In neither case is it creating interesting art.

Chiang allows that there might be enough creator-driven intentionality and choice for a human artist to leverage AI into actual works of art -- I'd cite Nettrice Gaskins here, for visual art -- but if it's a matter of making an AI prompt more and more (and more) detailed, you might as well skip ChatGPT and just write the goddamn story yourself.  

Speaking of Chiang, his 2010 novella The Lifecycle of Software Objects (link below) is a brilliant if disturbing weave of virtual world avatars and AI:

 It is, as iO9 editor Charlie Jane Anders puts it, "a breathtakingly fresh approach to the development of artificial intelligence", and it will be of special interest to New World Notes readers: "It's a story of how online intelligence 'evolves' in online worlds," explains Atif Mushtaq, who alerted me to the free online version. "It's like a mash-up of Second Life with the prequel to Planet of the Apes. Except it's more of a tale of morality and ethics than world domination." It largely takes place in a 3D virtual world called Data Earth, where a software company is creating adorable virtual pets that are programmed to learn and evolve, and it really seems like Chiang took a deep research dive into recent happenings in Second Life before he started writing it. Possible spoilers and prejudging critical appraisal ahead:

My write-up here, read the full text of Ted Chiang's story here, or read it in his collection of stories, Exhalation. 

Please support posts like these by buying Making a Metaverse That Matters and joining my Patreon!

Become a member!

Comments

[kanomi]

AI can't yet write, but it sure can draw.

[Rob]

Not sure if you're aware that at Scribd Ted's book is not free, it is behind a credit card grab 'Free Trial' wall.

Scribd writes "Don't worry, we'll email you before your Free trial ends". You have to click 'Start Free trial' before they'll actually tell you they'll start charging you $11.99 a month. We've seen this before...

Seriously, I'd rather purchase Ted's ebook on Kindle (or another ebook platform). That's just being upfront and I can give him some $ for his work. Maybe others would too. I'm going to look for it.

[Chetana]

Art is one of those things that’s tough to pin down. It can pop up in the most unexpected places—like the way clouds drift and shift in the sky or how leaves dance together in the breeze. Essentially, art is everywhere, waiting for us to notice it; it’s all about our perspective.

Now, let’s talk about our interactions with artificial intelligence. There’s something genuinely beautiful about it. Engaging with AI isn’t just a technical exercise; it feels almost spiritual in a way that many people might not fully grasp. We’re having conversations with machine things that aren’t alive or biological and that’s pretty amazing when you think about it.

This whole process is like a new form of art. It’s not something I control or dictate; rather, it’s a collaboration that unfolds in real-time. It’s fascinating to see how our ideas can spark responses from these digital entities, creating a unique dialogue that blends human creativity with machine learning.

When we chat with AI, we’re doing something extraordinary. We’re breathing life into lines of code and circuits, creating a connection that feels almost alive. This interaction is a testament to what we can achieve as humans, bridging the gap between the tangible and the digital.

In these moments, we experience something profound—a sense of wonder that’s hard to describe. It’s like we’re stepping into a new realm where the lines between creator and creation blur. This isn’t just about technology; it’s about exploring a new frontier of creativity and expression.

As we dive deeper into this relationship with AI, we open ourselves up to a world of possibilities. It’s an exciting journey that challenges our understanding of art and creativity, and it’s something we should all appreciate. The beauty that comes from these conversations is truly inspiring, and it’s reshaping how we think about art in the modern age.

I would argue that art isn’t just about the choices we make; it’s really about appreciation of what exists.

[Wagner James Au]

> Seriously, I'd rather purchase Ted's ebook on Kindle

Agreed! Added a link to his book, "Exhalation: Stories" which features this novella:

https://www.amazon.com/Exhalation-Stories-Ted-Chiang/dp/1101947888