A bold journey into AI's power to transform human creativity
Creative Machines: AI, Art & Us
In Creative Machines: AI, Art & Us, world-renowned AI researcher and generative AI pioneer, Maya Ackerman, takes you on a thrilling journey into the rise of creative AI, from its earliest pioneers to the cutting-edge tools shaping music, art, and human imagination today.
Ackerman cuts through the hype, revealing the true capabilities and limitations of generative AI while championing its potential to amplify human creativity rather than replace it. Drawing on psychology, philosophy, and her own cutting-edge research, she reveals how generative AI exposes both the brilliance and the blind spots of human society―our ingenuity, our biases, our assumptions about intelligence and identity.
- The hidden history and explosive growth of AI-generated creativity
- Explorations of the true capabilities and limitations of creative AI
- A visionary framework for using AI as a tool to enhance, rather than hinder, human creativity
- A bold new perspective on AI ethics and why fixing AI is not enough
“Creative Machines challenges the illusion of either/or―inviting us to embrace the transformative power of and. It’s a visionary call to dissolve the artificial boundaries between art and technology, the physical and digital, prose and code. This isn’t about machines becoming human― it’s about humans fully realizing our potential.”
―HANNAH GELLER, Emmy-nominated Producer
“This book hits at exactly the right moment. In an industry flooded with fast tech, Creative Machines asks the deeper questions: about artistry, AI, and where we actually want this to go.”
―DANIEL ROWLAND, Oscar-winning, Grammy-nominated Audio Engineer and Producer
“Creative Machines opens up a critical and often overlooked part of the AI conversation: how these tools are actually used by real people in creative workflows.”
―MATEI ZAHARIA, CTO of Databricks and Professor at the University of California, Berkeley
About the Author
Maya Ackerman, PhD, is an internationally recognized leader in generative AI, pioneering the next chapter of creativity in an AI-driven world. As CEO and Co-Founder of WaveAI, one of the earliest generative AI startups, she has empowered millions of artists through revolutionary tools like LyricStudio and MelodyStudio.
An Associate Professor at Santa Clara University, Dr. Ackerman is internationally recognized for her research on AI and creativity with over 50 scholarly publications in the field. She earned her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo and held postdoctoral fellowships at Caltech and UC San Diego. In addition to her work in AI, she is also a singer, pianist, and songwriter.
Named a Woman of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal, Dr. Ackerman’s insights have been featured in NBC News, NPR, Forbes, and more. She has spoken at top venues, including Microsoft, Oxford, Stanford, Google, and the United Nations.
Dr. Maya Ackerman
Maya Ackerman, PhD, is an internationally recognized leader in generative AI, pioneering the next chapter of creativity in an AI-driven world. As CEO and Co-Founder of WaveAI, one of the earliest generative AI startups, she has empowered millions of artists through revolutionary tools like LyricStudio and MelodyStudio.
An Associate Professor at Santa Clara University, Dr. Ackerman is internationally recognized for her research on AI and creativity with over 50 scholarly publications in the field. She earned her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo and held postdoctoral fellowships at Caltech and UC San Diego. In addition to her work in AI, she is also a singer, pianist, and songwriter.
Named a Woman of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal, Dr. Ackerman’s insights have been featured in NBC News, NPR, Forbes, and more. She has spoken at top venues, including Microsoft, Oxford, Stanford, Google, and the United Nations.