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Movie Screening and Panel Discussion on “AI and Creativity”
On August 22, 2023, a new edition of the event series “Digitalization – and now?” organized by uptownBasel and the interdisciplinary research network Responsible Digital Society (RDS) at the University of Basel took place. This time, the movie screening followed by a panel discussion focused on the difference between human and AI-generated creativity.
Around 50 guests from research, education and business accepted the invitation to attend the film screening on the rooftop terrace of the uptownBasel industry hub as part of the third edition of the “Digitalization – and now?” event series, this time on the topic of “AI and creativity – what still distinguishes humans from machines?”. The welcome address by Baschi Dürr (CEO of the uptownBasel group) was followed by the broadcast of the documentary “How AI is making creatives obsolete» from Deutsche Welle's series Kultur Intensiv.
The subsequent panel discussion was moderated by Urs Gredig (Swiss radio and TV). The discussion focused on the influence of programs such as ChatGPT and Midjourney, which can generate texts and images using artificial intelligence, on creative processes. Bela Böke (filmmaker and photographer, owner arbel gmbh), Sabine Himmelsbach (Director House of Electronic Arts (HEK)) and Prof. Dr. Rui Mata (Professor for Cognitive Decision Sciences, University of Basel) discussed.
The event was accompanied by Onome Ekeh, a Basel-based artist who uses AI technology in her creative work. Visitors were able to enjoy some of her works and also learn more about the history of their creation and the use of AI in the process of creating the artworks.
With lively audience participation, the panel addressed many aspects of the topic.
Afterwards, all attendees had the opportunity to revisit and deepen questions and thoughts in personal conversation and to enjoy the evening sun above the rooftops of uptownBasel. Parallel to this, the participants were invited to compete in an AI creative competition. The task was to recreate an image provided by Onome Ekeh as accurately as possible using the AI software Midjourney. The competition impressively showed the participants that even when using AI, a certain degree of creativity is still required - and brought some hidden talents to light.
Video of the event can be found here.