Seminar

Creative AI: on the partial or complete automation of creative tasks - Philippe Pasquier, Associate Professor, Simon Fraser University

Please register for this event here.

Abstract:

Since its origins, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has mostly focused on rational problem solving, and successfully so. However, with it popularization, the main use of computers has shifted toward creative tasks. From photo editing and video game design, to music composition, animation or video editing, creative tasks are those for which the notion of optimality is ill-defined. 

Since 2008, the Metacreation Lab for Creative Artificial Intelligence focusses on the design, deployment, and evaluation of generative systems, which partially or completely automate creative tasks. We will define, motivate, and exemplify these new developments of AI and machine learning towards:

(1) Computer-assisted creativity: embedding and designing interaction with Creative AI algorithms in the software used by the creative industry for asset production (music, drawing, design, animation, video,...), thus improving their productivity and/or quality. 

(2) Embedded generative systems: embedding Creative AI system which generate the right content for a given user at a given time, thus improving the user experience.

We will illustrate our discourse with examples of projects from the Metacreation Lab for music composition, sound design, 3D character animation, choreography, video games level generation, and music video generation. We will discuss industrial deployment and applications, as well as the potential ethical implications of these systems.

Bio:
 

Philippe Pasquier is an associate professor at Simon Fraser University's School for Interactive Arts and Technology, where he directs the Metacreation Lab for Creative AI. Philippe leads a research-creation program around generative systems for creative tasks. As such, he is a scientist specialized in artificial intelligence, a multidisciplinary media artist, an educator, and a community builder. His contributions range from theoretical research in multi-agent systems, computational creativity, affective computing, evaluation methodologies, and Creative AI, to applied artistic research and practice in digital art, computer music, as well as interactive and generative art.

Philippe's artistic work has been shown in prominent venues on all five continents, including at Ars Electronica (Austria), Les Bains Numériques (France), Centre Pompidou (France), Earzoom festival (Slovenia), GMEA (France), IRCAM (France), ISEA2012 (Turkey), ISEA2014 (Dubai), ISEA2016 (Honk Kong), ISEA2017 (Columbia), Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal (Canada), Mutek Festival (Canada), Plus One Gallery (USA), Space One (Korea), Sydney Biennale (Australia), Vooruit (Belgium), ZKM (Germany), ICST (Switzerland), and Akbank (Turkey).

Along with the Metacreation Lab fellows, Philippe has co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed contributions presented in the most rigorous scientific venues. His MOOC class on Generative Art and Computational Creativity on the Kadenze platform has served thousands. To further advance the Creative AI community, Philippe instigated and chaired the International Workshop on Musical Metacreation (MUME) and the MUME concerts series, which led to the creation of the AI Music Creativity conference. He also founded the International ACM Conference on Movement and Computation (MOCO), and was the director of the Vancouver edition of the International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA2015). Philippe is a Senior Program Committee member of the Joint International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI). 

Philippe's projects are finding industrial applications at large and have gained support and recognition from more than 20 scientific or cultural institutions including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), MITACS, the Canadian Council for the Arts (CCA),  the Australian Research Council and the Australian Council for the Arts, the French Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, and the European Community.

Please register for this event here.