Idea theft?

The quote "good artists copy, great artists steal" is often attributed to Pablo Picasso, but it is actually a paraphrase of a statement made by T.S. Eliot, who said, "Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal." But what is the difference between stealing and copying in creative contexts? One interpretation is that to steal is to be inspired whereas to copy is to imitate. Another, and according to artist Adam Kurtz, is that the difference is intent: ”Imitation is laziness or refusal to accept your influences. Inspiration is recognizing that influence and turning it into something new". So, you may copy, or steal an idea, perhaps change it a bit and then claim it as your own. But also, there is a difference between imitation and best practice. Because learning best practice may involve copying, say, traditional techniques or methods used and handed down by masters of the past. So, paradoxically, to generate and develop your own ideas in order to innovate you may both copy and steal from what already exists. And potentially more so with help of artificial intelligence, AI, that is, using generative AI as a powerful ideation tool for "appropriating" others' ideas. But also using AIdeation to explore further or be inspired by others' ideas. So the notion of "idea theft" seems distorted. That is, culture, both material and non-material has largely evolved through the borrowing and reinterpretation of previous ideas. Moreover, AI is not capable of stealing ideas in the same way that a human can. Idea theft, then, highlights the ethics of ideation. That is, for creatives to give credit, proper attribution or reference to someone or something that has influenced their creations.

The Aha! moment

The proverbial Aha! moment, or sudden insight, as typically experienced by creative practitioners, is a phenomenon that has been studied and theorised about by neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists for over a century. Most recent studies, however, show that insight is not a sudden flash that comes from nowhere. In fact, it is the result of the unconscious mind piecing together loosely connected bits of information stemming from prior knowledge and experiences and forming novel associations among them. That is, in contrast to analytical problem solving, which involves the use of a systematic process or logical reasoning to arrive at a solution to a problem, and where individuals can typically fully explain the steps taken to arrive at the solution, with insight, individuals cannot readily reconstruct the procedure followed to reach the solution..That is, problem solving by insight versus analysis are different in that creativity is not an insight moment although insight can produce creativity. The relationship, then, between insight and creativity is a controversial one. And so, the Aha! moments remain one of the most intriguing and unexplained processes of the human mind  Source: https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/65968

New AI tools signify ideation paradigm shift

The last twelve months have seen a rapid advance of artificial intelligence, AI, with the release of  consumer software applications such as ChatGPT and DALL.E. And as with most new pieces of technology, designers get new ideas from them. While current generations of AI use pattern detection or rule-following to help analyse data and make predictions, the advent of transformer architectures, developed by Google and Open AI has unlocked a new field: Generative Artificial Intelligence, GenAI. which is a type of AI that can generate original content in the form of text, images, audio, video etc. However, GenAI is not without drawbacks, including issues relating to privacy and security, bias, transparency, copyright, and equal access. And so while ChatGPT can act as a fast and powerful research tool, designers must still ensure that they validate any critical information from reliable sources. Yet the benefits of GenAI are obvious: For example, text-to-image generation can assist in rapidly creating visual representations of design concepts, including rapid prototyping allowing architects to explore various design alternatives and refine their ideas before investing significant time and resources in detailed design development. The large language model can also facilitate effective communication and collaboration among architects, clients, and other stakeholders conveying their ideas more clearly. In graphic design, by using ChatGPT, the tasks of choosing, say, colour palette, finding a catchy headlines, or deciding on a layout become easier and faster. Or, in product design, the model can generate multiple design options for a specific design task, giving the designer a variety of alternatives to choose from. All in all, the increasing use of GenAI, both in education and professional practice signifies a paradigm shift in the world of AI where GenAI is becoming an effective co-designer for content creation across disciplines.

Ideation and reflective design

The application of generative AI, GAI to design ideation raises the question what is the imapact of GAI on reflective design. That is, designers typically reflect on their actions, both during the design process ("thinking on one's feet") and after it, in what Schön calls reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action (The Reflective Practitioner, 1984). Moreover, reflective design, which implies critically thinking about the design process, suggests that designers need to reflect on the unconscious ways in how technology, such as GAI shape designers'  decision making, actions, and design proposals. For example, what is the impact of GAI, such as communication with a text-to-text model or text-to-image model, on designer ability to uncover hidden biases or limitations on design practice. In Reflective Design (Sengers et al, 2005) the authors argue, when designing with technology: 'Each person has preconceived notions shaped by their personal journey and that affects their practice as a designer. Thus, one needs to unpack personal ideologies and determine how they influence the reflective design processes.' Moreover, the authors state: 'Technology shouldn’t be viewed as the optimal medium for design; technology imposes its own set of constraints and values to its users which should be addressed.' The notion of the reflective practitioner, and reflective design, then, serve as a guide for designers in the age of AI too.

Solo or group ideation?

Design is typically a collaborative activity, at least for major projects that involve many stakeholders. But what about the early stages of the design process, in the phase of generating ideas? Does ideating on one's own result in substantially different ideas compared with ideating in a group (typically five or more people), including so called "brainstorming"? Research suggests that in the workplace people become less productive in a team compared to working alone. This phenomenon has been labelled "social loafing" whereby people are said to be less likely to feel personally accountable for the outcome of a task when they are working in group. So would the concept of social loafing apply to ideation? In other words, is there a change in motivation among ideators when the ideation task is shared in group work? This, of course, would depend on the task at hand, or the composition or dynamics of the group. Moreover, working together can motivate people to perform well but it can also lead to a loss of motivation because the individual contribution is not as visible. As in "who came up with the idea first, and who can take credit for it?". So ideating in group may be a mixed blessing. A way out of this dilemma would be to start ideating alone followed by discussing individual outcomes with the group.

The power of sound

Ideators typically generate ideas through words and images: "In the beginning was the word" or, "a picture says more than a thousand words". Or the dialogue between language (verbal) and visualisation (non-verbal), also described as the picture-word-cycle. Interestingly, the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, in 1930, worked on his lectures for Princeton University: 'I must say I have enjoyed writing them'. The six lectures didn't need images, he added. 'Personally, I've never cared much for illustrated lectures. If we might have some good music to begin with and end with - that might help'. Yet Wright's writing and public lecture series provided a new outlet for his ideas. Moreover, on the power of music, the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, in the first of his five BBC Reith Lectures, in 2013, argued, in examining the transformative power of music in the world: 'In the beginning, there was silence. And out of the silence came the sound'. Furthermore, it has been said that in the beginning was sound. Sound began the whole thing, and in sound resides tremendous power. It opens doorways to other realities, for with the production of sound, energy can move from one system to another. Now, there's a thought for ideators: The power of sound stirring imagination and innovation. Source: Wright quote: Alofsin, A (2019) Wright and New York. New Haven: Yale University Press. Barenboim: https://danielbarenboim.com/the-phenomenon-of-sound/

GenAI feeds ideation

Generative artificial intelligence, GenAI is already being employed as a tool by designers in what is referred to as machine co-creativity and augmented design, with the technology not only facilitating ideation but also used as a visioning tool (text-to-image software) for community engagement for public project. But there are limits to GenAI applications, notably issues of context, quality and data bias. That is, GenAI ‘learns’ by analysing existing data so it is afflicted by evidence of in-built bias - which highlights the risk of, say, relying on GenAI for a housing concept. That is, while GenAI is useful as a tool for designers to help create an architectural image, or to generate a seamless to-do-list for housing developers, it is not a blueprint for a complete building scheme, notably for aspects of detailing or from a structural engineering perspective, for which BIM (Building Information Modelling) is typically used as interface for a unified design environment.