Ascenti: Humans Opening to AI

by Verna Vogel, Lorene Shyba (Editor), James R Parker (Editor), Clem Martini, Eveline Kolijn

Overview

“The Ascenti AI Project” is about AI and Creativity: How might professionals in the creative arts collaborate with AI programs to discover new tools and techniques for their work? The overall project encompasses a book titled Ascenti: Humans Opening to AI, a dedicated website at ascenti-project.com, and a two-day conference symposium. The Ascenti book features a lineup of creatives in the cultural industries who specialize in visual art, writing (prose, poetry, and playwriting), animation, audiobook performance, sound design, and videogames. They experiment with AI by making two original works within their respective artistic mediums, inspiring an AI program(s) to generate works based on prompts derived from their original creations, and then evaluate the AI-generated output. They will be demonstrating AI's potential to enhance the original works, and help them overcome visual or other challenges. Alternatively, participants may express the downsides of AI.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781990735509
Publisher:	Durvile Publications
Publication date:	05/01/2024
Series:	Artist Survival
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	7.25(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Lorene Shyba is publisher at Durvile & UpRoute Books and editor of the Artist Survival series. Her PhD in Interactive Media is from the University of Calgary.

James R. Parker is a professor of art at the University of Calgary and an expert in multimedia and game design.

Participants are: Verna Vogel, Rich Théroux, Julian Hobson, and Eveline Kolijn (visual art), Dagmar Jamieson (architectural design), John Heerema (photography), Clem Martini (playwriting), Uchechukwu Umezurike (prose), Rosemary Griebel (poetry), Jim Parker (games), Lorene Shyba (audiobook narration/animation), and Kenna Burima (sound/music).

Read an Excerpt

Commentary, by James R. Parker PhD The question is: “When a robot takes a job from a person, what should that person do now”? In my view, the use of robots for human work is fine, but humans should not have to suffer on that account. This is not a situation where, for example, the job has become obsolete because the product is no longer needed (eg. buggy-whip makers) or due to the resources being mo longer there (eg. fishing). The replacement of humans by robots­­—AI—is purely a matter of convenience and cost savings on the part of a small group, at the expense of the creative human workers. This is unacceptable. And yet [certain companies] insist they will aggressively push ahead with using AI. What are the options? Well, we could forbid AI from doing human jobs, but that seems impractical. We could expand copyright laws so that the training of the AI involved payment to those who created the training data. That's going on now, and is a beginning. I suggest that AI use be allowed at a price, and part of that price would be paid to the humans who were no longer able to do those jobs due to the use of AI. Call it a levy or a tax, it would in my opinion be more like the old concept of profit sharing. This will not be voluntary, and would have to be attached to the AI tools or the products they generate.

Table of Contents

Foreword, Steve DiPaola PhD viiiForeword, DerRic Starlight xii

Introduction,
Lorene Shyba PhD, James R. Parker PhD 1

1. Clem Martini, playwriting

2. Dagmar Jamieson, architecture/art

3. Verna Vogel, art

4. Rich Theroux (1), prose/art

5. Uche Umezurike PhD, prose

6. Julian Hobson, art

7. Eveline Kolijn, art

8. Kenna Burima, music

9. Rosemary Griebel, poetry

10. Lorene Shyba PhD, audio

11. John Heerema PhD, photography

12. James R. Parker PhD, computer games

Index

Editorial Reviews

“The cultural and artistic roles of AI have received little attention so far. The Ascenti book is a welcome opening in that direction. It deals with AI used in creating visual arts, literature, and computer games, and analyzes both the new opportunities and limitations in these areas.” —Frans Mäyrä, PhD, Researcher of Culture and Society

From the Publisher