"I propose to consider the question, 'Can machines think?' This should begin with definitions of the meaning of the terms 'machine; and 'think'. The definitions might be framed so as to reflect so far as possible the normal use of the words, but this attitude is dangerous."
— These were the opening sentences of Alan Turing's 1950 seminal paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" in which the famous Turing Test was introduced. The Turing Test is a method that evaluates a machine's ability to think imitating (like) a human.
In 2025, with the rapid advancement in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning, we propose to consider "Can machines create/generate (like humans)"? On one hand there are arguments that Generative AIs are generating content based on machine learning of the huge amount of existing data. On the other hand there are arguments and results (outputs) that various AI tools are generating content such as prose, poem, images etc, definitely much faster than, and sometimes possibly better than a human.
In June 2024 OpenAI's former CTO Mira Murati observed— "Some creative jobs maybe will go away, but maybe they shouldn't have been there in the first place." The last part of her observation might not be fully accurate (or explained) because—
- a) as long as any previous job or creation sets foundation or base of our current works, that is important. We may recall Isaac Newton's metaphor "Standing on the Shoulders of the Giants".
- b) even if any work does not have direct or indirect functionality today, if it served any purpose anytime in the past, still they should have been there (as they did).
However, the question we are pondering on is "Can machines create (like humans)?"
A Small-Scale Turing Test
In the second half of 2024, i conducted a small–scale Turing test where i presented visual and other content to the participants without labeling and sometimes deliberately mislabeling the creation type/process. The triggering point of the test was when i, during normal chat conversations, sent photos of something, and got remarks "Is this AI generated?" As this confusion took place more than once and the questions were honest, i thought to do this small–scale test inspired by Turing's.
In the next few months, sometimes during random conversations, i presented content (mostly images, and text based) to people either by not mentioning how and who created it, or by intentionally mislabeling the creator (labeling human creation as AI creation and the vice versa).
i can not draw any major conclusion from the small sample size i had. However the test results definitely showed some interesting confusion in detection/appreciation. What is more important, (and the main topic of this writing), it is highly possible that human intelligence ("we") tend to ignore things and give less importance to a creation, the moment we get to know that it is an AI–creation.
Generative AI: Adaptability, Acceptance for Larger Market Share (User Connect)
There are various companies and institutions offering generative artificial intelligence services. While, a lot of resources are being invested to train the AI models, some attention is to be given towards studying the reasons and possible hindrances that might ("is") creating an "emotional distancing".
It is not uncommon to see a person, when gifted a hand–drawn painting, shows deep gratitude and preserves it with care. The same person, if gifted a much better quality AI–generated painting or portrait, may not show similar interest.
One opinion might be: AI can
never be humans, and create like humans. On the other hand there can be an inquisitive approach. There is a thought experiment
question— "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" The answer is "yes", the falling tree still makes a sound even if there is no one around to hear. Similarly, does AI creation deserve same acceptance and esteem that a human gets if the AI creation is of the same/better quality? Possibly can not be answered immediately.
Even if we completely ignore this "Artificial Intelligence Rights" aspect (possibly the paragraph above sounded so), a company, most probably, is compromising and losing on its user base unless the above mentioned adaptability and acceptance issues are studied further. This is directly linked with user connect and over–all user experience.
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"Let Him Be Caesar First"
William Shakespeare Act 3, Scene 2
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
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Possible reasons
It is a subject of broad studies to investigate "what actually makes things human?" Possible reasons are—
- We Appreciate the Process and Not Only the Output: We respect the process, and not the one time output. If someone is gifted a painting they appreciate the time and efforts given for it, not only the painting.
- Human Interaction Uncertainty Principle: We humans, when interact with each other, there is always some uncertainty — we don't know what's coming from the other side. The moment we can find and presume patterns, possibly human intelligence tends to ignore it.
- Perfection is Not Perfect Always: In human interaction, communication, and creation there are imperfections of different kinds (errors, inaccuracies, typos etc.). We are used to it. Completely error–free perfect things might also make things "not" human like. Perfection may not be perfect always (however this does not suggest to generate AI responses with minor errors/typos. That will be an easy but a pathetic solution).
This might be interesting and impactful to get expert views of neuropsychologists and psychologists (who have studies on human mind), social/human interaction specialists, AI psychologists and other experts. Possibly there can be surveys, interviews and experiments with larger and diversified audience and sample size. The learnings can be incorporated in the AI services in a systematic manner. This should result in over–all user experience improvement, and service improvement.
This page was last updated on: 20 February 2025
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