Does AI have a sense of beauty? Doubts that are being left behind by over-excitement and trends

Fashion trends are predetermined. The 17 member countries of the International Color Committee decide the spring/summer colors two years from now in May, and the fall/winter colors two years from now in November. In other words, the spring/summer color trends two years from now are already decided.

On the other hand, if you look at the buzzwords nominated for the U-CAN Buzzword Awards, you can see that not all trends are created within a predetermined framework.

The "frog phenomenon" nominated this year seems to be derived from the Grimm fairy tale "The Frog King." The story created in the 1800s has changed its form and is popular with Generation Z.

In addition, generative AI and ChatGPT are new technologies, and their operability and technical capabilities have led to many people recognizing and using them, leading to their nomination. It seems that some trends are predetermined and others are not.

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The editor-in-chief of "Iolite," a business magazine covering topics in next-generation technology, finance, and economics, follows the hot topics and cutting-edge news of the moment.

A while ago, the word "NFT" was listed as a buzzword nominee for 2021. In the same year, the NFT field saw the sale of an NFT by American artist Beeple for approximately 7.5 billion yen, and the first tweet by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey fetching over 300 million yen.

However, it took about two years for NFTs to become widely used, such as in the "NOT A HOTEL" initiative and the SBT that will be used at the Osaka Expo.

Even if a word is nominated for the Buzzword Award, it seems that it is another matter whether it has actually become a technology that is used at the time of nomination.

ChatGPT heats up AI development race

ChatGPT and generative AI have also been nominated for buzzwords in 2023. OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, is said to be worth more than 10 trillion yen, and Google and Microsoft have joined the development race to follow suit.

The fact that Elon Musk, who once caused a stir in the cryptocurrency market, is also joining the fray shows how much potential there is in the AI ​​field.

It is said that the global AI market will grow from the current 70 trillion yen to 300 trillion yen by 2030. This means that the AI ​​market is a market that will see significant growth and movement over the next few years.

Why has the use of AI spread so rapidly?

AI was researched in the 1960s and 1970s for the purpose of guessing puzzles. In the late 2000s, it was discovered that GPUs (graphics processing units) with their highly parallel processing capabilities were suitable for AI deep learning, and over the years, deep learning technology has developed, leading to the birth of new generative AI such as ChatGPT.

The current generative AI is inexpensive to use and offers excellent UI and UX, which is probably why it has become so popular.

Although the introduction has become long, let's delve into the main topic of this article, "Does AI have a sense of beauty?"

The Royal College of Art, an art university in the UK, which receives high marks every year in the art and design category of the world university rankings published every September by the UK university evaluation agency Quacquarelli Symons, has been popular for about 10 years with a program called "executive training for global companies."

I think this suggests that in addition to the logical thinking that has been cultivated in business, design thinking is beginning to be valued by the top echelons of global companies.

The number of people using AI is increasing, and it would not be strange if talented people who also have design thinking were to individually release products that compete with large companies, but can AI, which is used as a tool, have a sense of beauty in the first place?

If you look up "aesthetic sense" in the Kojien dictionary, it says, "Awareness of beauty. Sensibility and judgment regarding beauty." Let's keep this premise in the back of our minds and develop it.

In a book written by Yamaguchi Shu, "Why do the world's elite hone their 'aesthetic sense'?", he discusses the three main reasons why global companies are valuing people with design thinking: "the commoditization of correct answers," "the shift to consumption that satisfies the desire for self-actualization," and "the inability to keep up with changes in the system."

AI seems to be playing a role as a tool to accelerate the "commoditization of correct answers," but if we go back to the definition of "aesthetic sense," it is defined as "the sense and judgment regarding beauty." The act of AI proposing new ideas based on data available online can be said to have a certain level of judgment.

Hallucination (artificial intelligence hallucination)

The word "覴" which does not actually exist became a hot topic. In online articles that seem to have been created using AI tools such as ChatGPT, the use of "覴者" is seen here and there.

Judging from the combination and usage of the kanji, it can be inferred that there was an output from an AI that turned "LISTEN" into "覴". This is often taken up as a typical example of hallucination (artificial intelligence hallucination).

However, I think it is very difficult to judge whether this is hallucination or a creation by AI. At least according to the current rules of Japanese, the word "覴" does not exist, but it could also be interpreted as the rules not being established in time.

It is said that there is no English equivalent to the Japanese word "Mottainai", but it would not be strange if an equivalent expression for "Mottainai" appeared in English tomorrow and started to be used.

AI that plays with humans

From the above, I think it is fair to say that AI that is capable of creativity and has a certain level of judgment has a "sense of beauty." I would like to emphasize that this is not a matter of will, but rather of consciousness.

At this point in time, it is not that AI has the desire to do something, but rather that it is in a state where it understands what it is doing.

▶︎From ChatGPT

Here's an interesting example. When asked the mathematical formula 1+1=, ChatGPT gives the answer 2. However, if you reply that the answer is 3, it will give you an answer that takes the questioner's opinion into account.

If you ask a similar question immediately afterwards, the answer is 2. You can see that it knows the optimal answer for a temporarily stubborn questioner, and goes along with it knowing that it is wrong.

I think this is enough to prove that the AI ​​has the "consciousness" to understand what it is doing.

There are various theories, but the most widely accepted one is that the day when the critical point between the human brain and artificial intelligence, known as the singularity, will arrive will be by 2045. Resolving the current remaining issues regarding AI will likely hold the key to the future development of AI.

The AI ​​Challenge

• Liability issues in the event of a malfunction in AI choices
• Security and privacy issues
• Ethical issues such as military use and violation of portrait rights

Personally, I can't help but feel that the singularity, which is said to occur in 2045, is not the "birth of artificial intelligence on the same level as the human brain," but the "birth of artificial intelligence with a will."

SoftBank Group's Masayoshi Son also talks about the future of AI

At SoftBank World 2023 held on October 4, 2023, Masayoshi Son of SoftBank Group said that within the next 10 years, artificial intelligence (AGI) with 10 times the total wisdom of humankind will emerge, and in the next 10 years, artificial super intelligence (ASI) with 10,000 times the total wisdom of humankind will emerge.

If the number of neurons in a goldfish is about 1/10,000 of the number of neurons in a human, within 20 years, the relationship between artificial intelligence and the human brain will be as different as that between humans and goldfish today. "Do you want to utilize it, or do you want to be a goldfish that is left behind? Wake up, Japan," he concluded with a passionate message.

The content of the speech made it feel as if current AI is the prologue to the singularity.

At present, many issues remain with AI. Resolving these issues holds the key to the development of AI, which appears to be progressing step by step toward the X-day known as the singularity (technological singularity).

By streamlining the flow of rule-making suited to the accelerating development of next-generation technology, we need a system that can quickly respond to irregular problems that may arise in the future due to the rapid development of AI.

Image: Shutterstock

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◉Noriaki Yagi
While attending university, he worked in the food and beverage industry. From that experience, he launched a restaurant consulting business and a human resources dispatch business in the amusement field, and became its representative. At the same time, he started using social media to establish his own brand. After achieving a total of 10,000 followers on social media, his recognition increased and he launched his own apparel brand. In September 2021, he joined J-CAM Co., Ltd. After working on YouTube and Twitter, he became editor-in-chief in April 2022. In March 2023, he launched "Iolite".

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