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thechanelmuse's review against another edition
5.0
In The Creativity Code, Marcus du Sautoy (a University of Oxford mathematician) dives into an exploration between the lines of artificial intelligence and human creativity through stories and examples on games, art, music, storytelling, and songwriting to name a few; the history of machine learning algorithms; and if programmed machines can develop a form of consciousness, producing this human trait of creativity, or just give an illusion of it through imitation. This is an intriguing, well-researched, and written book that I will definitely be rereading.
gemmamilne's review against another edition
4.0
Read this in preparation for an interview with Marcus (side note: the BBC series he hosted - ‘Story of Maths’ - was partly the inspiration for me studying maths at uni, so I was pretty excited to get to chat with him on stage..!)
I enjoyed this book. It’s about AI and creativity, and yes it does the kind of standard AI art stuff - ‘will AI replace artists etc etc’ - but once you get past that (fair play if you like that stuff; imo it’s extremely overdone), there’s some wonderful ideas in here about mathematical creativity and ‘why we even do pure maths’, which is 100% worth the read.
I feel like I spend a lot of time convincing people that doing pure maths is like doing art - it’s about the thought process and the pursuit of proof and the indescribable ‘a-ha’ moments when something just clicks. And this book, paired with Hardy’s ‘A Mathematician’s Apology’, does a superb job of not only bringing this to life, but questioning what it’s really about and what the future of it might look like in a world seemingly obsessed with automating even the most pure forms of human delight.
Read Hardy, then read this.
(Oh and you can watch back my interview with Marcus on some of these big topics - just Google CogX 2020 and our names and it’ll come up
I enjoyed this book. It’s about AI and creativity, and yes it does the kind of standard AI art stuff - ‘will AI replace artists etc etc’ - but once you get past that (fair play if you like that stuff; imo it’s extremely overdone), there’s some wonderful ideas in here about mathematical creativity and ‘why we even do pure maths’, which is 100% worth the read.
I feel like I spend a lot of time convincing people that doing pure maths is like doing art - it’s about the thought process and the pursuit of proof and the indescribable ‘a-ha’ moments when something just clicks. And this book, paired with Hardy’s ‘A Mathematician’s Apology’, does a superb job of not only bringing this to life, but questioning what it’s really about and what the future of it might look like in a world seemingly obsessed with automating even the most pure forms of human delight.
Read Hardy, then read this.
(Oh and you can watch back my interview with Marcus on some of these big topics - just Google CogX 2020 and our names and it’ll come up
timdams007's review against another edition
4.0
Awe-inspiring read. My only critique is the fact that the author does a bit too much of self-referencing from time to time. Other than that, great read on the state-of-the-art of AI applications in the creative fields of music, writing, gaming and mathematics.
darana_'s review against another edition
5.0
Good book. Been on my reading list for a while and the timing of reading it here in 2023-H1 is actually quite good. Written in 2019 so pretty up to date about the direction we're going while being wholly free of the overhype that is hard to avoid in anything written today.
Add in a really well fleshed out philosophical framework for creativity and it is both an exploration of the possible and a conceptual framework for navigating the uncharted waters we're entering.
Add in a really well fleshed out philosophical framework for creativity and it is both an exploration of the possible and a conceptual framework for navigating the uncharted waters we're entering.
hannahowens's review against another edition
3.0
The last chapter was what I was hoping for from the rest of the book - a more philosophical look at the question of AI, humanity and creativity, asking when AI can be said to be conscious and creative.
The book is a lot more maths and not very much art/creativity, so best for those with at least a strong interest in maths. I have finite patience for maths and this ran out in about chapter 4, although I think it sounded like the concepts were well explained enough for a lay person (who had the stomach for it).
Lots of interesting examples of where AI is being used, how it's been developed and where it's going next. But yea, too many formulae for my liking.
The book is a lot more maths and not very much art/creativity, so best for those with at least a strong interest in maths. I have finite patience for maths and this ran out in about chapter 4, although I think it sounded like the concepts were well explained enough for a lay person (who had the stomach for it).
Lots of interesting examples of where AI is being used, how it's been developed and where it's going next. But yea, too many formulae for my liking.
bernardobmatos's review against another edition
5.0
What an amazing way to start my reading journey in 2021. Sautoy, an outstanding matemathician in areas concerning objects' symmetry, guides us through the impact of AI in areas related to poetry, music, art, among others. It allows you to understand the impact of the new emerging technologies, always supported by real examples starting with the one of the IBM computer (Deepblue) and its historical win against the world chess champion (Kasparov) to the one responsible for copying and improving Rembrant's art, or Bach compositions, or many others.
A clarified discussion related to consciousness of machines in the future, the conceptual meaning of art, or the unavoidable adoption of the new technological paradigms by the most powerful enterprises such as Google, Netflix, Spotify, etc. are some key points of this book.
You are worth as much as your data is.
A clarified discussion related to consciousness of machines in the future, the conceptual meaning of art, or the unavoidable adoption of the new technological paradigms by the most powerful enterprises such as Google, Netflix, Spotify, etc. are some key points of this book.
You are worth as much as your data is.