Where does Creativity end and Tech begin? Playing with Art generato...

And the words were whispered to the machine and it said: Behold I've created this for you

I recently fell down a rabbit hole, which oft is the case with the inspiration from fellow Hivers. @thermoplastic made this very interesting post the other dayand I was intrigued.

Firstly "dream by Wombo" was mentioned, which I had to find out what this was. I've tried another art generator once, can't recall it's name, but it was tricky and I didn't really understand what was happening.

Wombo I hopped on, created an account typed in a prompt 'lady with a dog by a castle' and Wombo gave me this:

I was mesmerized, looking into the form and brush strokes it had made in an instant. I whispered to the machine and the machine obeyed.

I then was introduced, also by lovely @thermoplastic in a comment in his thread of this very same post another name: "Deep Dream Generator" so off to google I went.

Now, the deep dream generator, which I just made an account on as well has you upload an image. So, I simply took a section of one of my recent paintings (I'm hoping my original work isn't lost in there somewhere, but I suppose art made and sent out has a right to be manipulated by others? But that is another post indeed) and got this:

Deep Dreams idea of my painting made over

Here is the section of my original painting, which I've shared here on Hive last month I believe.

This is just the section I uploaded to Dream Generator

You simply upload any image and then you can choose a famous artist of history 'style' or some other style, then there are some other bells and whistles one can manipulate, smoothness and so on, I'll hopefully learn more about it as I play with it, however this might me see, this AI everyone is always going on about isn't intelligence.

It seems to simply files away everything it sees, cataloging and storing, like a bureaucratic middle man with well kept file cabinets. Then if one were to say, I need Form A but I need it to look like Form B but can you also accidently spill your coffee on it during your designated break time. (The move Kafka always comes to mind when I think of bureaucratic office workers)

When I ran this same painting a second time it gave me this:

Another go with my painting but this time choosing Seurat's style

I suppose the colors might considered "Seurat-esque" but my original brush strokes remain and it was like peering behind the curtain of OZ.

This seems to happen quite often in Modern times peering behind what we are given as Reality to see old men pushing gears to control the spectacle.

I can't tell you how much I see the world in which we live so very like this, the paegnetry and spectacle of smoke and mirros...is our entire world Snake oil salesmen and 2 penny magicians? Who can say, but I digress...

Back to my query: Where does Creativity End and Tech Begin? Honestly I don't think tech has got creativity, yet. I mean perhaps it might one day, but now even it it's advanced algorithms of creating vast universes in video games or rendering high tech movie landscapes, is it not just going to the 'files' given it and extrapolating on that theme?

Tho I suppose one could even say our Creativity IS like that we gather up or filed in our lives, putting away images in our mind's eye and sytles of things we've seen and experienced and then process that out in art and creation.

This very ponderance makes me wonder at creativity in it's essence once we see how the sausage is made, per say, does it still taste as sweet? I think I'm mixing my metaphors, but honestly I'm not sure where Creativity in the human animal begins.

When humans slipped away from their mammalian brothers by tracing lines on cave walls in the flicker of torchlight, representing the beasts they had slain, they realized, they could in essence 'slay any beast they so imagined' and could draw out great dragons. Sure they might not exist out there in the 'real world' but in here, with fellows gathered around captivated by the 'story of the thing' early human made "creativity"

So, I find myself back to Creativity verses a series of 1's and 0's Is AI right now still an ape? Is it mimicking the other 'apes' in it's behavior? "Take this image and make it like that image" we tell it, the Ape presses the button to get the banana, it does not understand the entire possibility.

Yet one day, an ancient took that stick burnt into charcoal and drew lines on cave walls and when he saw it was not just cave wall and stick but whatever he wanted to represent, was that the creation of Art, was Creativity born? Who can say.

For now I'm happy to have fallen down this rabbit holeand love when tech can be used like a tool to make such amazing things, like @juliakponsford latest piece which is so lovely.

We artists can now use this tech of the Machine as a tool in our toolbox, like a pot of paintbrushes, these various forms of recreation done with 1's and 0's are our paint pots and brushes, our stick made into charcoal like the ancestor of old in the caves.

Will AI one day see the wall and the stick as tools and that it's drawings come from itself and not just what it finds it it's files?
Who can say? Surely not I, but I'll happily add these fun new tools to my toolbox and wonder where it shall all lead.

How do any of you see computer generated art? Do you see it as a tool for use in creativity or a stand alone piece of it's own creation?