Generative Natural Intelligence – Creativity: What is it? – Part 1

Creativity is a skill that only humans possess. Is that still the case? Recently, another species has been mentioned again and again in connection with creative achievements: generative artificial agents.

Is GenAI creative? To be clear from the outset: this question will not be answered here. Before we can even talk about it, it is important to look at the concept of creativity. What is creativity?

Of course, a single blog article is not enough to answer this question, if it is even possible. In this blog article, we will take a closer look at the concept of creativity. However, it should be mentioned that we cannot cover all areas, thoughts and scientific findings on this topic and that there are still many open questions in science.

We start with a general definition of creativity: the creation and realisation of something new, unique, original and useful. For a group of people, in a defined period and context. Some further definitions place additional demands on creativity. The US Patent Office, for example, includes the element of surprise in its decisions on granting patents.

Others again demand that elegance and style be included in the definition of creativity. Creativity is often not easy to recognise or evaluate. What is perceived as creative is subjective. In principle, a distinction is made between different levels of creativity.

The levels of creativity

When children draw a picture for their parents at school, we – at least those of us who are not the children's parents – can see that this is no Picasso. The picture is original because every child draws funny head-and-footers in their own unique way. We are talking here about the mini-c level of creativity. The benefit lies primarily in the individual learning effect and a positive feeling about one's own performance.

The next level up is called little-c. Here we can already see a clear benefit. This level refers to creativity in everyday life to make our lives easier. For example, we are on our way home by bike and suddenly have a flat tyre. We are still a long way from our destination and have to somehow manage to arrive before dark. What options do we have for solving this problem? Little-c creativity is not groundbreaking, but it is useful.

The next level is Pro-c. This level of creativity can largely only be achieved by experts in a particular field. Some people talk about a ten-year rule. To reach this level of creativity, an expert must have worked in a field for at least ten years. One example would be the development of a medical application for blood analysis.

Finally, there is the Big C level. This level is only achieved by a very small number of people in the world. Big C includes things like the internet, Beethoven's 5th Symphony and the GIF format. In other words, creative solutions, people and processes that are highly original, useful and recognised by a large percentage of humanity.

Creativity in the context of our times

The time factor often plays a role in how we perceive creativity. Everyday creativity often has to be delivered in real time. We often find it under the term ‘improvisation’. It is particularly demanding when we create and implement original and useful solutions under time pressure, such as the work of an emergency paramedic or in improvisational dance.

In contrast to everyday creativity, we often find higher levels of creativity in a specific area or in a social context. Solutions in this area have significantly more far-reaching consequences, require considerably more time, knowledge, expertise, and long production and evaluation phases. The motivations are also different. Time travel, for example, does not solve any everyday problem we are familiar with. Unless I could prevent my bicycle from getting a flat tyre after the fact. And just in case someone thinks that time travel is a bad example: it is a problem for which many creative answers have already been generated by the respective experts in a domain. Quantum mechanics, wormholes, the theory of relativity, to name just a few.

When we talk about something being creative, we often refer to different aspects:

• People can be perceived as creative and can differ in their creativity. This assumes that each person has an individual creative potential.
• We call certain solutions and products creative.
• A solution-finding process itself can be creative. Here we speak of creative behaviour.

A creative product can be anything that is new, original and useful. It does not necessarily have to be a painted picture or a composed song. Even a mathematical formula or a household appliance can be considered creative.

Who decides what is creative? – Subjectivity, expert opinions and the challenge of evaluating creativity

But who decides whether something is creative? Everyone can do it for themselves. Sometimes it is difficult for a layperson to make a truly qualified judgement in an industry or scene as to whether something is original and has added value. Added value can also mean that I enjoy looking at something or being inspired by it.

Teresa Amabile, a professor at Harvard Business School and renowned psychologist, developed the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT).

This method is often referred to as the ‘gold standard’ of creativity measurement and is considered one of the most effective methods for measuring creative performance. The method can be used in many different disciplines and for a wide range of products.

In this method, a group of jury members is determined. Each jury member evaluates individually and in isolation on the basis of various dimensions. The subjective opinions of all jury members are then collected and combined into an overall evaluation. Instead of static questionnaires, what makes this method special is that the jury members themselves are experts in the respective field. The difficulty with this method is finding the most suitable experts. The Consensual Assessment Technique allows subjective views and preferences to be taken into account, since everyone has a different idea of what is creative.

Whether a product is perceived as creative depends on us. We pass on and develop ideas for generations. Some forms of creativity improve survival. The invention of weapons was most likely a creative response to the need for protection from enemies and predators.

It may be that at some point in our evolution we no longer need them and they lose their perceived creativity. Cave paintings and axes made of branches and stones were once all the rage. Today, many once groundbreaking creative achievements are taken for granted in our everyday lives, developed beyond recognition or have become useless. The cloud or vacuum cleaner robots are such creative products of modern times. But how do we get these ingenious, creative products? This can happen in many different ways. Let's look at two examples:

Grace Hopper – The first compiler

Grace Hopper (or Grandma COBOL) had a doctorate in mathematics and mathematical physics and wanted to join the Navy. Through the exceptional ‘Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services’ programme, she finally made it into the military via a roundabout route. Here she also made herself indispensable after the war. She held on to her belief that it was much easier for people to give computers commands in natural language and developed the first working compiler that translated written language into the computer coding ‘0’ and ‘1’. Side note: She also coined the term bug - our modern-day term for computer errors.

Hedy Lamarr – The Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Hedy Lamarr was known as the most beautiful woman in the world and as a Hollywood star in Snow White and Cat Woman. But she was also an inventor. During the Second World War, she witnessed a discussion about whether torpedoes should be remotely controlled by radio frequencies, as they could be too easily manipulated by the enemy. Together with her friend, the composer George Antheil, she recognised the connections between the latest musical findings from her work with several pianos and the associated handling of frequencies. Together they developed the frequency hopping technique. This is a forerunner of frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS), which is now widely used for wireless communication such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Creativity in interaction: how circumstances, expertise and chance shape great ideas

Of course, extraordinary circumstances such as wars, temporary funding programmes or hot topics in the investor market and the financial resources they provide are often crucial to whether we can pursue a more or less big idea. Often it takes the right combination of people being in the right place at the right time. An idea alone does not lead to a creative result. Sometimes chance also plays an important role. So, to create a creative product, it takes more than a fixed idea. To create something useful and original, we first have to identify what is needed. We have to define a goal. We have to know the circumstances and the domain. To do this, we need experts. We have to set ourselves a clear task and come up with many potential solutions. This is probably where most of the ‘creativity’ happens. From these ideas, we have to select the ones we actively pursue.

Afterwards, we still need to evaluate whether we have actually achieved our goal with our product or process. Can we get our dishes clean in less than three hours without lifting a finger? Can we talk to someone in real time even though they are on another continent? Have we made our audience dance happily and exuberantly when they hear our song?

The concept of creativity is often not clearly separable from other concepts.

We see a family of concepts here that are closely related. We see innovation, design, discovery, invention and entrepreneurship. Some scientists see creativity as an umbrella concept for all other related concepts. Others see innovation as the umbrella concept, with creativity playing only a role in generating ideas and selecting ideas for implementation. Of course, it is not possible to clearly distinguish these concepts from one another. Furthermore, there are different definitions for each concept. We have tried to highlight the subtle differences. Let's take a closer look at each concept:

Discovery

A discovery is the finding of something unexpected that triggers a surprise effect. A classic example of a discovery is the universal law of gravity. Millions of people had already seen apples falling from trees before Sir Isaac Newton. Certainly, several hundred people had also had an apple hit them on the head. But Newton was the first to figure out why that happens. So, to make a scientific discovery is to see something that everyone has already seen and to think about it in a way that no one has thought before you.

The invention

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) defines an invention as ‘the creation of a new technical idea and the physical means for realising it’. To be patentable, an invention must be new, useful and different from what experts in the field of technology would expect.

In this definition, invention is even equated with innovation. Inventions are often associated with technology and engineering. Invention is primarily about solving a specific problem, improving an existing solution, or finding useful applications for existing tools and materials. For example, what else can I do with plastic? New inventions can build on old inventions. They can inspire further inventions. Discovery and invention are also closely related and often build on each other.

Design

Design is often associated with creativity. Design is also frequently used to describe innovation and related processes. Design is widely used in art, engineering and technology – for example, as fashion design, communication design or UX/UI design. The focus of design is on planning the production of tangible artefacts. Design is therefore a specific type of planning with the aim of creating tangible products.

Innovation

Innovation represents new ways of looking at things, methods or products that have value. It relates to the deliberate introduction and application of new and improved processes. The focus is on implementing ideas. Another important aspect of the concept of innovation is human capital. Innovations must be able to attract human capital. New employment is created through innovation successes.

Innovation does not necessarily mean absolute novelty, but is a mix of emergent processes, adopted or adapted processes and a creative response to change, challenge and market constraints. Therefore, we are talking about relative novelty here. Even the hundredth start-up that delivers food to us is most likely innovative in some way. The usefulness of an innovation is measured by the economic benefit – i.e. national growth or turnover – that can be achieved by implementing it. Innovation is therefore rather extrinsically motivated. The focus is not on originality, but on efficiency.

Innovations are therefore often evaluated from an economic point of view. In 1975, an engineer at a well-known camera manufacturer developed the first digital camera for consumers. The management rejected the product as a niche product and retained the original business model, in which the main revenues came from the sale of colour films and services in the area of image development. Although the innovation was very new and useful, it appeared to be too risky and unprofitable. As a result, the manufacturer had blocked its own long-term entry into the digital photo market. The company deemed the innovation to be too original and not economically efficient enough. On the other hand, there are innovations that actually prove to be too original and not economically effective. Examples include the Evian water bra or the Play-Doh perfume, which smells of fresh modelling clay. In contrast to originality and usefulness, economic efficiency is at the forefront of innovations.

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship does not necessarily produce new and useful ideas. It also does not live from new perspectives on existing markets. It focuses on identifying valuable opportunities and can determine the extent to which a new solution solves a problem, fills a gap in the market and can generate sales. Entrepreneurship is not necessarily about creating useful and new things, but about promoting or implementing appropriate and radical changes when necessary. An entrepreneur often visualises and implements solutions and ideas of others by identifying gaps, using information and mobilising resources to realise their vision.

Ideas give rise to ideas. Creativity is not a limited resource.

Conclusion

Whether you discover, invent, design, or creatively raise capital for creative products or creatively bring them to market, few people manage to go down in history as inventors, designers, explorers, or entrepreneurs. It is rare for a person to fulfil all these roles and create a unicorn single-handedly. Creativity is often not clearly definable and is subjective. It is essential for survival, part of our everyday life and an essential part of our work as computer scientists. After all, we are professional problem solvers. Important aspects of creativity that we should keep in mind are

Creativity is not only found in art, but also in engineering, politics and the IT industry.

• Creativity is not a matter of talent. It is a skill that can be learned.
• Creativity can be fun, but it also involves hard work.
• Creativity often requires specialised knowledge.

When we ask the question: Is GenAI creative? What are we talking about? GenAI as a creative product of human research and science? The products – images, texts, videos and so on – that GenAI generates in response to a prompt? The fascinating algorithms that bring a generative artificial agent to life or GenAI as an independent creative personality?

Would you like to learn more about exciting topics from the adesso world? Then take a look at our previously published blog posts.