GOOD LUCK, EDMOND DE BELLAMY

Portrait of Edmond de Bellamy

Well I'm back at work and asking daft questions in meetings again. Everyone's thrilled, let me tell you.

Speaking of meetings, I did wonder today, whether I might have the tiniest fear of them. And I mean all of them. They seem to make me... what's the word... a bit... stressy? I think it's the lighting. Or maybe the tone. Or maybe it's just those brainstorming, discussion meetings when I have to master the art of neither saying too much, nor offering too little.

Hmm.

Meanwhile, Clive's just told me about something called Generative Adversarial Networks. It was all in the context of how neural networks (AIs) are generating art, actual real art, by machine-learning from thousands of examples of portraits painted between the Fourteenth and Seventeenth Century.

Imagine that! Artificial Intelligence is now learning how to create original artworks! In fact, today, for the first time, a piece of generative art, this portrait of the fictional Edmond de Bellamy, is being auctioned for what could be thousands of Euros.

Clive told me how it works.

It is, apparently, two neural networks who act as a team. One learns ideas and comes up with a new way to do something; the other validates it and checks whether it will work and passes the quality test. Both learn together, from each other, both create ideas, and both submit. As I say, they call it a Generative (it produces something) Adversarial (from the natural tension) Network (of the team).

That's a great way for a team to work, isn't it? I wonder why we humans let our nature get in the way; in our 'adversarial networks' we often refuse to listen to people we don't respect, we subjugate ourselves to dominance, and we blindly recoil when our pride gets damaged. It takes a lot of character to work in a team, sometimes, even in a network of two.

I'm not qualified to talk about marriage, but it does occur to me that there's a lot to be said for a rotating relationship of learning, discussion, and creativity. After all, the family unit ought to be the original basis for 'generative' art. But even outside of that incredible unit, there's a lot of power in forming a network, don't you think?

I reckon my problem with meetings is that they're not especially designed for creatives - and even when they are, creative people are really difficult to keep on track.

"My brain's just not wired up to think that way," I heard myself say, tapping my pen on the table. I quickly realised I had to try a bit of short-circuiting so that the science-bit of my thinking kicked in, but it wasn't easy. And it turned out to be stressful.

Which might be why I like the idea of Generative Adversarial Networks. So, I think it's a great thing, and I hope it sells for lots of money, as the first of its kind. Meanwhile, I ought to try to be better behaved in meetings I suppose. At least until the computers take over.

Good luck, Edmond de Bellamy.