The 3 levels of creativity in the AI Era | Oxford, Marcus du Sautoy
In a Nutshell
Marcus du Sautoy defines three levels of creativity—exploratory (pushing existing rules), combinational (merging domains), and transformational (breaking rules to create new frameworks)—and argues AI excels at the first two but struggles with the third. The AlphaGo Move 37 exemplifies how AI can produce transformational creativity by discovering strategies humans would have dismissed, fundamentally changing Go play. Ultimately, AI functions as "augmented intelligence" rather than a competitor, best serving as a collaborator where humans introduce efficiency shortcuts to complement the machine's exhaustive processing.
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Marcus du Sautoy is a professor of mathematics at the University of Oxford and the Simony professor for the public understanding of science. His role serves as a bridge between academia where developments occur and society which will be impacted by new technologies, particularly artificial intelligence.
AI has been remarkably successful, prompting questions about whether there is anything it cannot do. Creativity is frequently cited as something AI could never achieve, with many viewing creativity as a unique expression of human identity. However, the concept of creativity is difficult to pin down, making it challenging to determine whether AI can be creative.
There are three distinct forms of creativity. Exploratory creativity involves taking existing rules and pushing them to their limits within that rule set. Combinational creativity involves finding new things by combining different areas or disciplines. Transformational creativity is the most difficult and rarest form, where conventions of the past are broken and something emerges seemingly out of nowhere.
Humans are described as a lazy species, comparable to a lion that sits around all day and then does a short burst to capture prey. This mentality often leads to incredible innovation when facing problems, as people seek clever shortcuts rather than laborious approaches.
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