The Creativity Code: How AI is Learning to Write, Paint and Think

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Will a computer ever compose a symphony, write a prize-winning novel, or paint a masterpiece?

New developments in AI are shaking up the status quo, as we find out how many of the tasks humans engage in can be done equally well, if not better, by machines. But can machines be creative?

In this talk, based on his bestselling book, Marcus du Sautoy examines the nature of creativity, as well as describing how algorithms work, and the mathematical rules underpinning them. He asks how much of our emotional response to art is a product of our brains reacting to pattern and structure, and exactly what it is to be creative in mathematics, art, language and music.

Marcus finds out how long it might be before machines come up with something creative, and whether they might jolt us into being more imaginative in turn.

Speaker

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Marcus Du Sautoy

Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science
Department of Continuing Education and the Mathematical Institute
Oxford University

Marcus du Sautoy is the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the Oxford University, a chair he holds jointly at the Department of Continuing Education and the Mathematical Institute. He is also a Professor of Mathematics and a Fellow of New College. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2016. In 2001 he won the prestigious Berwick Prize of the London Mathematical Society awarded every two years to reward the best mathematical research made by a mathematician under 40.