Creativity Versus the Perception of Creativity in Computational Systems

We add to the discussion of how to assess the creativity of programs which generate artefacts such as poems, theorems, paintings, melodies, etc. To do so, we first review some existing frameworks for assessing artefact generation programs. Then, drawing on our experience of building both a mathematical discovery system and an automated painter, we argue that it is not appropriate to base the assessment of a system on its output alone, and that the way it produces artefacts also needs to be taken into account. We suggest a simple framework within which the behaviour of a program can be categorised and described which may add to the perception of creativity in the system.