The EU-funded What-if Machine (WHIM) project not only generates fictional storylines, but also judges their potential usefulness and appeal. It represents a major advance in the field of computational creativity.
Science rarely looks at the whimsical, but that is changing as a result of the aptly named WHIM project. The ambitious project is building a software system able to invent and evaluate fictional ideas.
“WHIM is an antidote to mainstream artificial intelligence which is obsessed with reality,” says Simon Colton, project coordinator and professor in computational creativity at Goldsmiths College, University of London. “We’re among the first to apply artificial intelligence to fiction.”
World’s first fictional ideation machine
The project acronym stands for the What-If Machine and is also the name of the world’s first fictional ‘ideation’ (creative process of generating, developing, and communicating new ideas) software, developed within the project. The software generates fictional mini-narratives or storylines, using natural language processing techniques and a database of facts mined from the Web (as a repository of ‘true’ facts). The software then inverts or twists the facts to create ‘what-ifs’. The result is often incongruous, ‘What if there was a woman who woke up in an alley as a cat, but could still ride a bicycle?’
Can computers judge creativity?
WHIM is more than just an idea-generating machine. The software also seeks to assess the potential for use or quality of the ideas generated. Since the ideas generated are ultimately destined for human consumption, direct human input was asked for in crowdsourcing experiments. For example, WHIM researchers asked people whether they thought the ‘what-ifs’ were novel and had good narrative potential, and also asked them to leave general feedback. Through machine learning techniques, devised by researchers at the Jozef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, the system gradually gains a more refined understanding of people’s preferences.
“One may argue that fiction is subjective, but there are patterns,” says Professor Colton. “If 99 percent of people think a comedian is funny, then we could say that comedian is funny, at least in the perception of most people.”
Just the beginning
Generating fictional mini-narratives is just one aspect of the project. Researchers at the Universidad Complutense Madrid are expanding the mini-narratives into full narratives that could be more suitable for the complete plot of a film, for example. Meanwhile, researchers at the University College in Dublin are trying to teach computers to produce metaphorical insights and ironies by inverting and contrasting stereotypes harvested from the Web, while researchers from the University of Cambridge are looking into Web mining for ideation purposes. All of this work should lead to better and more complete fictional ideas.
Read more: Can Computers be Creative?
The Latest on: Computational Creativity
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Computational Creativity” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Computational Creativity
- BBC micro:bit – the next gen unveils nationwide playground survey to empower children’s digital and data collection skillson May 9, 2024 at 8:00 am
Utilising the free micro:bits, that were given away to more than 20,000 primary schools last autumn, pupils will learn new skills, get outdoors and engage in practical activities within their school p ...
- Where the human brain (still) has an edge over AIon May 9, 2024 at 6:00 am
How curiosity, emotional intelligence, and the capacity to learn from mistakes could present an enduring advantage over AI.
- AI Can Now Generate Entire Songs on Demand. What Does This Mean for Music as We Know It?on May 7, 2024 at 10:28 am
The view that AI systems will never make “real” music like humans do should be understood more as a claim about social context than technical capability.
- Cohort of Creative Problem Solvers Lead Class of 2024on May 6, 2024 at 5:00 am
These graduates are confident, capable, and creative problem solvers who have learned the power of collaboration,” said Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera in his commencement address to Ph.D.
- Artificial intelligence and the emergence of “generative synesthesia”on March 26, 2024 at 3:41 am
Given I’ve been interested in generative AI and computational creativity, I was naturally drawn to studying how such technologies may be shaping the future of human creativity and expression and ...
- AI-inspired French Pastry – The Fusion of Creativity and Technology in French Cuisineon February 3, 2024 at 8:04 pm
By marrying the artistry of French patisserie with the computational capabilities of AI, MLK exemplifies the transformative potential of technology in the realm of culinary creativity. The promise ...
- Ackerman, Mayaon November 14, 2023 at 4:37 am
Courses Taught 2020 Abstract Data Types and Structures (Undergraduate), Santa Clara University. 2019 Computational Creativity (Graduate), Santa Clara University. 2019 Artificial Intelligence (Senior ...
- Teaching Computational Creativityon October 10, 2023 at 4:08 am
Teaching Computational Creativity examines the new interdisciplinary pedagogies of today's coding-intensive interactive media and design curricula. Students, researchers and faculty will find a ...
- AI for Creativity and Leadershipon September 17, 2023 at 4:48 pm
The courses in this certificate program cover topics including machine learning, computational creativity, new media, AI ethics, creative team dynamics, self-governance, organizational strategies, and ...
via Bing News