ChatGPT Doesn't Matter

The conversation about AI and in particular ChatGPT over recent weeks has centred on how much is going to change in the world now that a machine can produce great, apparently insightful, copy, write compelling stories even make good music.

No doubt this is a valid question and it leads to both positive and negative answers. However, my major feeling is that it doesn't change anything if you think about creativity as I do: as a way of being.

Creativity is obviously about end-product in many senses but as any creator will tell you, it is the process which delivers that product that is what's most important. There can be no glorious "eureka!" moment if you simply input requirements into a computer and get a genius output. There can be no thrill, no joy, no sense of pride you feel in your own achievement. We know being regularly creative increases positive emotion and a sense of flourishing, boosts self-esteem, decreases anxiety, and if we basically cheat by pressing a button and obtaining a brilliant idea, all that is lost.

You could say this is a romantic view of creativity, but even a more cynical and competitive philosophy makes AI next to irrelevant for individuals in many contexts. This is because creativity has always been a way for people to signal their quality to others. Take the mating arena from a sociobiological point of view. Through your creative brilliance you can show a prospective mate you have a brilliant brain and social power, and thus, perhaps, good genes or just financial clout - so says evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller in his book The Mating Mind. We venerate artists of varying types largely because they came up with the ideas they display or perform. Sorry, the Monkees, it's the Beatles who I'm inviting to my dinner party.

Moreover, regular creativity is now know to reduce the chances of developing dementia in old age by 73%, so it's simply something we all should do for our brain health and wellbeing.

For me, viewing creativity as a way of life makes any AI genius that emerges over the next phase of the human story something that just doesn't really matter.

#creativity #creativebing #ai #chatGPT #innovation #imagination #creators #wellbeing #wellness #thriving #flourishing

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