Artificial intelligence is being talked about everywhere again, from the movie “Transcendence” to Google acquiring the technology for possible later use in their search engines. And while we still analyze Siri regularly, plenty of other artificial intelligence apps exist out there that are being touted as being as smart or smarter. One of those right now is an AI app called Cleverbot that claims to be able to converse like a real, intelligent person. However, when you go in there to converse with Cleverbot, you’ll realize that it starts answering with random replies once you get into more obscure conversation.
While that’s typical of most AI programs, there seems to be an odd intelligence on Cleverbot that gives some creative logic when you converse. As proof of this, a filmmaker named Chris R. Wilson decided he’d write a screenplay for his film and collaborate ideas using Cleverbot. The conversation turned into a hilarious seemingly nonsensical collaboration until you realize there could be some logic if you think a little deeper.
What made this all the more hilarious is that Wilson put the dialogue with Cleverbot into his short film. If you can keep a straight face while watching the straight faces of the actors reciting the lines, you’re probably not getting the joke. Even more interesting are the comments on YouTube where you can see the film. Most people thought it was nonsensical enough that it proved AI has a long way to go before reaching a human brain.
Look a little deeper into the conversation, though, and it showed that Cleverbot had some creative intelligence. He wasn’t just repeating the same comments and memes over and over as you used to see in the older AI programs available online. You can frequently have a logical conversation with Cleverbot, and some creative ideas can come out of asking Cleverbot direct questions as Wilson did.
It brings the question whether artificial intelligence programs might be able to help us write screenplays and other creative projects in the near future that make complete sense. Wilson’s experiment might have looked confusing, yet you could see the advancements in AI by the program coming up with wholly original replies than anything done prior. No matter that some replies seem like non-sequiturs, there was enough creative wordplay there to help you come up with a solution to a creative problem you may have.
Wilson was clearly able to convey that and could have tweaked the responses into something making more sense. Just for the sake of absurdist comedy, we had a chance to see the early AI brain at literal work. And in some people’s eyes, that’s already a sign of artificial brilliance.
Would you ever collaborate creatively with artificial intelligence someday if you don’t enjoy working with real collaborators? Don’t be surprised if Wilson kicked off a new experimental trend. We’re just a few years away from using AI programs even smarter than Cleverbot to perhaps find creative ideas no human being could really think of doing.
Then we’ll have to deal with an original problem on its own: Do you give credit to the artificial intelligence, or take full credit on your own? Even more surreal is having the AI program giving an acceptance speech at the Oscars for co-writing the best screenplay written in years.
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