13.28 Judy’s Missives: The Importance of Creativity, Empathy and AI - 14 July 2023

‘Judy’s Missives’ are very soon to become Paid Subscriber exclusive - please consider upgrading.

This week my mind has been on creativity, empathy, and yes, AI. I was reading about how how the future will/could be a different place with an AI takeover - [a hypothetical scenario in which (AI) becomes the dominant form of intelligence on Earth as robots effectively take control of the planet. Possible scenarios include a takeover by robots and the notion of a robot uprising.]

I don’t know about you but I’m starting to feel bombarded with articles and information about AI, but I fear that we can’t be complacent.

It was timely this week to read from Michelle Richmond in her ‘The Caffeinated Writer’ - the excellent article ‘What Keeps Me Up at Night When I Think About AI’[1] where she says: “The question we writers were pondering a few of months ago: Will AI take my job? has become more urgent at the same time the answer has become more obvious: eventually, probably, yes.”

Both her conclusion & advice in my mind are sound and so as to not have to issue a ‘spoiler alert’ - let me just say that I agree with her wholeheartedly. Michelle Richmond‘s solution coincides with my preoccupation with creativity and empathy.

I believe that if we all spend more time focussed on both creativity and empathy our lives will be more innovative and probably more fulfilling and our future more, well, perhaps more assured…?

But how important is creativity in the future?

“Without creativity, there is no innovation. That's why creativity is among the top 10 most essential skills of the future,” according to the World Economic Forum.

Is creativity a human need?

Humans have always been creative. It is a skill that sets us apart from other animals. We can come up with new ideas and innovate things or processes that will meet our needs. Without it, we would not have progressed as a species…

And can Empathy be taught?

Does increased Empathy directly increase Creativity?

I refer you to and leave you with this Cambridge University study from a couple of years ago which gives me hope about exercising empathy and creativity.[below]

I’d love to chat with you in the comments below about this topic - let’s share our thoughts, concerns, and hopes:

Merci mille fois

Judy

———

"Encouraging teens to empathize with others may enhance their creative thinking.

A new University of Cambridge study suggests that encouraging students in a classroom setting to engender empathy boosts their creativity. These findings (doi.org/10.1177/1365480…) were published on January 25 in the peer-reviewed journal Improving Schools.

This study's title, "Empathy Is the Mother of Invention: Emotion and psychologytoday.com/us/… for Creativity in the Classroom," uses a play on words to reframe the age-old proverb, "necessity is the mother of invention," while highlighting the benefits of teaching students empathy.

"We clearly awakened something in these pupils by encouraging them to think about the thoughts and feelings of others," coauthor educ.cam.ac.uk/people/s… in a news release. "The research shows not only that it is possible to teach empathy, but that by doing so, we support the development of children's creativity and their wider learning."

"This is something that we must think about as curricula, in general, become increasingly exam-based," Demetriou added. "Good grades matter, but for society to thrive, creative, communicative, and psychologytoday.com/us/… individuals matter too." .. it continued... "The results showed a statistically significant increase in creativity among pupils at the intervention school, where the [empathy] tools were used," the authors said. For example, in the "control classroom," where students followed a standard curriculum, TTCT scores only increased by 11 percent throughout the school year. In contrast, creativity scores rose by 78 percent in the intervention group that was encouraged to be more empathic.

READ FULL article here: psychologytoday.com/us/….