The Week in Mobility News - 11 September

Are Robots Creative?

This week, OpenAI’s GPT-3 wrote its first article for The Guardian. The outlet asked the language generator, to write an essay from scratch convincing readers that robots come in peace; 

The eloquent 500 words perhaps gives journalists cause for concern - adding yet another profession to the “vulnerable to automation” pile. 

We tend to assume that jobs involving routine tasks will be the most likely candidates for replacement by artificial intelligence. This is largely because we know how to describe these tasks and can package them up into neat baskets of code. As soon as we introduce any task that requires subjectivity, sensitivity or years of experience to balance insights, facts and gut feel - we have believed this grants us immunity from the robot takeover. 

However as GPT-3 has shown us, this assumption no longer holds. Whilst we can accept that AI and machine learning are increasingly capable, we still debate if it can be deemed ‘creative’.  ArtAi Gallery creates AI generated paintings which it sells for a modest $44. Whilst Obvious, a collection of AI artists, sold a portrait for $432,000 at Christies. The bookends of the price we’re willing to pay would suggest the question of robot creativity is as polarising as Marmite.  

GPT-3’s real power comes in being able to digest 175 billion machine learning parameters to generate new text. It can explore a space so large, a person can’t even picture it in any rational measure. If AI can access and produce near-infinite options, does that equate to creativity?

If creativity is described as “the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness.” and Imagination as “the ability to produce and simulate novel objects, peoples and ideas in the mind without any immediate input of the senses.”

Then it would suggest that AI is more creative than we could ever possibly purport to be. Yet it still feels like an insult to the practitioners who have dedicated their careers to honing their crafts. 

Robots don’t process information like humans, and for that reason do we need to ascribe their skills and attributes in human-like terms? Instead, maybe we just need to appreciate that both designers and AI are able to arrive at new solutions which, by their novelty, are creative. However if humans and machines operate together, the previously vast and unexplored design space can be chartered and dug for gold at unimaginable speeds. In doing so we can push creative boundaries far further than we thought possible. 

That said, I know this is likely a view point generated from atop Mount Stupid, so I welcome your thoughts as we keep wearing both design and engineering hats.

Two Big Stats

According to a study by the SMMT and Frost&Sullivan, to reach full zero emission capable UK new car market will require 1.7 million public charge points by 2030 and 2.8 million by 2035. This is equivalent to installing 507 charge points per day until 2035 at a cost of ￡16.7 billion. 

136 million shared scooter and bike rides were taken across the US in 2019. The most successful shared micromobility systems relied on a strong partnership between the operator and the city, where deployment was seen as part of a broader effort to meet city health, equity, mobility, sustainability, and resilience goals.

Elsewhere in the industry

• Zapmap launches single payment service across multiple charge point operators
• GM to manufacture for Nikola motor in the US
• Uber wants to electrify globally by 2040
• Yandex spins out self-driving car unit from its joint venture with Uber
• Honda-Yamaha-Kawasaki-Suzuki test swappable electric motorcycle batteries
• Opel confirms all-electric Movano by 2021
• Amazon Prime gets FAA approval for delivery drone trials
• EnelX and AMP capital will invest in electric public transportation vehicles and associated infrastructure for the vehicles’ storage, charging, repair and operation in the Americas
• Self-driving truck tech company “Ike” announced that three major U.S. trucking companies had entered into their “Powered by Ike” customer program — Ryder System, Inc., DHL, and NF
• There will be over 2600 electric buses in Moscow by 2024

Miscellaneous

Join this webinar on Wednesday 16th September 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Imogen Pierce - Head of Experience Strategy, Arrival