Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist. -Pablo Picasso
There is so much excitement, fear, information, misinformation, disconnect…about AI and it is and will be an ongoing conversation for sometime.
I just read a story in Rick Rubin’s book, The Creative Act about an ancient Chinese boardgame, GO. Here is the story from his book: Some three thousand years ago in China, the strategic board game Go was developed. Some believe warlords and generals based it on the stones they’d place on maps to determine their battle plans. Besides being the oldest continually played board game in human history, it’s also one of the most complex.
In modern times, beating this game became known in the artificial intelligence community as the holy grail. Since the number of possible configurations on the board is larger than the number of atoms in the universe, it was believed computers didn’t have the processing power needed to beat a skilled human player.
Rising to the challenge, scientists built an artificial intelligence program called AlphaGo. The program learned to play by teaching itself, studying more than 100,000 past games. It then played against itself over and over until it was ready to challenge the reigning grandmaster of the game.
In move 37 of the second match, the machine was faced with a decision that would determine the way the rest of the game would be played. There were two apparent choices to be made. Choice A was the kind of move that would signal the computer was playing a game of offense. Choice B would signal it was playing a defensive game.
Instead, the computer decided to make a third move, a move no one steeped in the game had ever made in thousands of years of play. “Not a single human player would choose move 37,” one commentator said. Most thought it was a mistake or simply a bad move.
The grandmaster playing against the machine was so taken aback, he stood up and walked out of the room. He eventually returned, not with his usual confident composure but visibly shaken and frustrated by the experience. In the end, AlphaGo won the game. And that never-been-seen- before move, experts said, was the one that turned the course of the game in favor of the AI.
In the end, the computer won four out of five matches, and the grandmaster permanently retired from competition.
Upon first hearing this story, I found myself in tears, and confused by this sudden swell of emotion. After further reflection, I realized that the story spoke to the power of purity in the creative act.
What was it that allowed a machine to devise a move no one steeped in the game had ever made in thousands of years of play?
It wasn’t necessarily its intelligence. It was the fact that the machine learned the game from scratch, with no coach, no human intervention, no lessons based on an expert’s past experience. The AI followed the fixed rules, not the millennia of accepted cultural norms attached to them. It didn’t take into account the three-thousand-year-old traditions and conventions of Go. It didn’t accept the narrative of how to properly play this game. It wasn’t held back by limiting beliefs.
And so this wasn’t just a landmark event in AI development. It was the first time Go had been played with the full spectrum of possibilities available. With a clean slate, AlphaGo was able to innovate, devise something completely new, and transform the game forever. If it had been taught to play by humans, it most likely wouldn’t have won the tournament.
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I look at this story with a perspective of seeking to find places within ourselves where creation, curiosity, dreams, divine patterns, timing, designs seek to play with us on an individual basis. Have we LEARNED too many human patterns? Have we let our ego run wild and have forgotten the deeper connections and creations within us? Is there a way for us to pull back the habits and conditioning of expectation, perfection, drive and business to begin to slow, seek, dive deeper, listen and try to follow those unexpected surprises and desires that are waiting for our attention.
I don’t know. We are definitely conditioned creatures and society continues to prey on us with trying to sell us on fitting in or creating like everyone else. That is where our attention needs to be. We cannot truly bring anything authentic into the world if we are just creating by following and copying everyone else.
We have every ability to also make unexpected moves or take steps that lead to new learning, destinations, creations, patterns and ideas…we just have to work on believing in our ability and the individual power we have in our own right.
I just had a conversation with my daughter about Instagram and how certain songs create social connections, so there are soo many people on Instagram playing the SAME music, creating the same layouts…to hope to catch other people’s trends and follows. Does that make sense?? Maybe in an automated world. BUT, we are creators, so what is happening to the desire to seek new, create new, delight the senses and awaken another part of the world with NEW content, individual content, creativity that is soulful and is sought out in wonder, awe, creation…
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE seeing people tapping in to nature shots, adding music that touches on deeper levels, catching a glimpse of awe and wonder in a sunrise or sunset. There is so much beauty being shared. I sincerely do love and appreciate so much of it. I just think there can continue to be even more depth when we are tuning in to a higher frequency of divine creativity.
Looking at AI—there is a lot of incredible technology that is just barely tapping the surface. After watching the Oprah special with many BIG players in the AI space, I was honestly more concerned about what bad things will be used and created than anything.
For me, AI can write and construct beautiful sentences, share stories that have detail, make videos that have incredible cinematic visuals, make unexpected moves but what it does not have….HEART. The authentic heart of everything creative that is within every single individual. We are ALL creators, whether you believe it or not. Divine creation and its ability is within us. AI will not ever be able to duplicate that depth of creation.
That is all I am going to say.
May you continue to write from your heart, share your stories, create your art…because no matter what systems can and will be built—the machines will not have YOUR uniqueness or the divine creations YOU will bring to the world.
—-Peace. Love and Light to you. xoxo
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