Surely one of humanity’s most distinctive characteristics is its creativity. Robots may have the edge on us in terms of pure logical reasoning and mathematical number-crunching, but excellence in those things requires only a strict adherence to the rules. When it comes to creativity – where imagination is a prerequisite – robots have historically come up short. Well, that may be about to change. 

There have been many experiments in which computers have been coerced into creating art. As far back as the 1960s, computers have been drawing pictures and composing music. However, it would be hard to call these efforts intelligent since the results, no matter how beautiful or awful, are simply the random output of clever programming.

Now, though, with Sunspring, a short film written entirely by a computer, that may be changing. Using a so-called recurrent network (which enables a computer to “learn”), the machine, called Benjamin, was fed scripts from dozens of science fiction films such as Highlander Endgame, Ghostbusters, Interstellar, and The Fifth Element, before “writing” its very own screenplay.

The result is both jarring and hilarious, and, unlike robot art of the past, apparently demonstrates something akin to real creativity – Benjamin, after all, was “inspired” by major science fiction films and created something completely new and unique.

Granted, though the film is entertaining, I can’t see a robot winning an Oscar anytime soon. And whether the film’s dark ambience and intrigue is more the result of good acting and cinematography (neither of which Benjamin had any say in) rather the script itself is up for debate. What I find exciting, however, is the prospect that Benjamin and similar tech mark a new stage in AI, one in which robots are, slowly but surely, learning to think creatively, rather than simply obey commands.

What did you think? Is Benjamin is doing something qualitatively different to other computer artists? Or is Benjamin’s “intelligence” something of a trick? 

Email me your thoughts.