As is our habit, my wife and I were chatting the other morning over a cup of coffee.

We were discussing whether AI (artificial intelligence) could really mimic or even exceed the creativity seen in artwork and literature. Can AI create a Rembrandt painting, or a timeless movie like To Kill A Mockingbird or great literature?

It brought to mind a story I had read in 6th or 7th grade, which, for some reason, has stuck with me all these years – The Scarlet Ibis.

Can AI infuse the creativity in these mediums without having experienced the emotional pain and the emotional thrills that accompany the five senses? We didn’t think so.

And that, of course, is independent of the discussion of God. We both believe that every person has a divine spark, a soul, within them that works independently of all the biological processes visible to the surrounding world.

So we concluded that AI, in itself, is not a threat. The belief that AI can somehow surpass human creativity is the real threat.

 

 

The Scarlet Ibis

It was in the clove of seasons, summer was dead but autumn had not yet been born, that the ibis lit in the bleeding tree. The flower garden was stained with rotting brown magnolia petals, and ironweeds grew rank amid the purple phlox. The five o’clocks by the chimney still marked time, but the oriole nest in the elm was untenanted and rocked back and forth like an empty cradle. The last graveyard flowers were blooming, and their smell drifted across the cotton field and through every room of our house, speaking softly the names of our dead.

 

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The Scarlet Ibis