You can’t automate creativity

I’m always wary of people trying to automate aspects of creativity. It always makes me think that the people involved don’t truly know what creativity is. What I’m thinking of are those who want to somehow automate story creation or voice acting – I think they will end up being further uncanny valley endeavours.

This attempt at creating the “ideal” Bowie song really illustrates what I mean. Have you ever heard anything so banal and meaningless (assuming you can get past the guy’s awful singing)? The exercise is completely meaningless because the reason many people like Bowie is because of his variety. And this is true for many artists and bands who have been around for a while – Queen, Pink Floyd, etc.

However, I think that U2 may already be working with this guy. And maybe EA consult with him from time to time. 🙂