One of the leading names in artificial intelligence has called upon the creative industries to pursue a "new Renaissance" defined by increased co-operation between science and the arts.
The person in question is Google DeepMind co-founder Sir Demis Hassabis, who has just been honoured for his “extraordinary contribution to advancing artificial intelligence in service of humanity” by the Royal Society of Arts.
Sir Demis received the RSA’s Albert Medal, an honour which the organisation's chief executive (and former head of Universal Music UK) David Joseph hailed as part of the Society’s renewed ambition to be the home of creativity for the common good. The Google DeepMind innovator now joins a storied list of previous winners including luminaries such as Marie Curie, Alexander Graham Bell, Stephen Hawking and Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
At a special event held in the Royal Society of Arts’ historic Great Room, Sir Demis was introduced by mathematician and broadcaster Professor Hannah Fry. From there, he stressed that the age of AI will demand a new coming together of science and the arts – and reminded anyone with fears of the technology that its future is still very much ours to shape.
It’s very easy to focus only on the negatives. It’s actually all up for grabs what’s going to happen from here
Sir Demis Hassabis
While accepting the Medal and covering a lot of ground in conversation, Sir Demis returned to the relationship between scientific and artistic creativity.
“I’ve tried to live my whole life and run my career [by] not seeing any boundaries between creativity and science, but quite the opposite,” he said. “I’ve always worked at the intersection of technology and creativity.”
Sir Demis went on to describe AI as potentially one of the most profound technologies humanity has ever developed, while always reminding people that technology alone cannot decide the future it creates.
“The technology just enables the opportunities – all these possibilities, all these paths," he observed. "But it doesn’t define what we should do with it, what is beneficial for society. I think the answers need to come from the arts and the humanities.”
Sir Demis was, again, quick to acknowledge the fears many will have about the new era of AI, but offered words of encouragement.
“We’ve got to embrace the ambition and the optimism that this will work out,” he said. “It’s very easy to focus only on the negatives. It’s actually all up for grabs what’s going to happen from here.”
“I’ve no doubt we will be able to deal with this new era and adapt to it because I really believe in human ingenuity," he added. “I’m sure we will work through it, and then we’ll come out the other side and write a new future. And what I hope would be almost a new Renaissance, a coming together of science and the arts."
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