AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
A podcast that explores the good, the bad, and the creepy of artificial intelligence. Weekly longform conversations with key players in the space, ranging from CEOs to artists to philosophers. Exploring the role of AI in film, health care, business, law, therapy, politics, and everything from religion to war.
Featured by Inc. Magazine as one of "4 Ways to Get AI Savvy in 2024," as "Host Jeff Wilser [gives] you a more holistic understanding of AI--such as the moral implications of using it--and his conversations might even spark novel ideas for how you can best use AI in your business."
AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
The Complicated Intersection of AI and Creativity, w/ Dr. Maya Ackerman
Does AI make us more creative—or quietly replace us?
In this episode of AI-Curious, we sit down with Dr. Maya Ackerman—author of Creative Machines: AI, Art, and Us—to probe where human creativity ends and machine creativity begins, and how incentives in Big Tech and venture capital shape the tools we all use.
We explore why today’s dominant systems skew “convergent” (safe, samey, oracle-like) instead of “divergent” (surprising, generative), what that means for artists, and how to design AI that actually elevates human imagination rather than displacing it.
Why listen
We wrestle with uncomfortable truths: bias mirrored back at us, investor pressure to “replace” vs. “augment,” and the risk of a cultural sea of slop. We also map a constructive path forward—collaborative systems, richer human–AI interfaces, and a 10-year horizon where AI expands human creative range.
Guest
Dr. Maya Ackerman — AI researcher, entrepreneur, and author of Creative Machines: AI, Art, and Us.
Takeaways
- AI reflects us. Bias in → bias out; representation fixes are not enough without cultural understanding.
- Incentives matter. Many well-funded tools are architected to replace creators; augmentation tools are underfunded.
- Creativity ≠ autocomplete. Today’s LLMs are optimized for correctness and convergence, not genuine divergence.
- Better interfaces beat bigger models. Beyond “text-to-X,” human-centred, interactive tools can coach, not usurp.
- A hopeful arc. With the right design, collaborative AI can measurably raise human creative ability—and stick.
Dr. Ackerman's new book: Creative Machines
https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Machines-Future-Human-Creativity/dp/1394316267