[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-a-new-formula-tries-to-measure-creativity-in-chess-and-art":10,"sections":35},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":24,"tags":25,"sources":30,"feedback":34,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":34,"total_tokens":34},11263,"a-new-formula-tries-to-measure-creativity-in-chess-and-art","A New Formula Tries to Measure Creativity in Chess and Art","A new paper turns Boden's newness-value-surprise theory into a math formula, then tests it on chess moves and paintings by Picasso and Renoir.","Researchers think they've found a way to put a number on creativity.\n\nA new arXiv paper proposes a formal mathematical definition of creativity, built on three criteria drawn from psychologist Margaret Boden's work: newness, value, and surprise. The authors argue that most existing approaches to computational creativity either stay informal and hand-wavy, or get mathematically precise without ever testing whether the formula holds up in practice. To check theirs does, they applied it to two very different domains: chess moves and paintings by artists including Picasso and Renoir. The formula, they report, picked out the moves and works that match what people would intuitively call creative in both cases.\n\nThat cross-domain consistency is the interesting part. If one scoring method can flag creative choices in a chess match and a canvas alike, it gives anyone building AI systems that generate or judge creative output a shared yardstick, instead of every team inventing its own ad hoc metric. That matters as more tools claim to write, paint, or compose \"creatively\" with no agreed way to check the claim.\n\nTwo domains and a handful of famous painters is a thin sample, though. Call this a promising first attempt at a shared definition, not proof that creativity reduces neatly to one equation.","[\"ai research\",\"creativity\",\"computational creativity\",\"chess\"]","2026-10-12T04:00:00.000Z","2026-10-12T04:43:04.754Z","2026-10-12T04:43:09.839Z","published",null,[],"ai",[26,27,28,29],"ai research","creativity","computational creativity","chess",[31],{"name":32,"url":33},"arXiv cs.AI","https:\u002F\u002Farxiv.org\u002Fabs\u002F2610.12845",0,{"sections":36},[37,40,44,49,54,59,64,69,74,79,84,89,94,99],{"name":38,"slug":24,"count":39,"latest_published_at":18},"AI",6896,{"name":41,"slug":42,"count":43,"latest_published_at":18},"Security","security",946,{"name":45,"slug":46,"count":47,"latest_published_at":48},"Policy","policy",496,"2026-10-11T20:06:43.000Z",{"name":50,"slug":51,"count":52,"latest_published_at":53},"Deals","deals",484,"2026-10-09T12:30:00.000Z",{"name":55,"slug":56,"count":57,"latest_published_at":58},"Hardware","hardware",234,"2026-10-11T17:20:00.000Z",{"name":60,"slug":61,"count":62,"latest_published_at":63},"Science","science",196,"2026-10-11T15:34:40.000Z",{"name":65,"slug":66,"count":67,"latest_published_at":68},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",190,"2026-10-11T21:14:40.000Z",{"name":70,"slug":71,"count":72,"latest_published_at":73},"Startups","startups",120,"2026-10-09T17:02:31.000Z",{"name":75,"slug":76,"count":77,"latest_published_at":78},"Software","software",115,"2026-10-11T07:34:45.000Z",{"name":80,"slug":81,"count":82,"latest_published_at":83},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",110,"2026-10-09T13:03:48.000Z",{"name":85,"slug":86,"count":87,"latest_published_at":88},"General","general",70,"2026-10-11T14:15:00.000Z",{"name":90,"slug":91,"count":92,"latest_published_at":93},"Gaming","gaming",59,"2026-10-09T11:43:43.000Z",{"name":95,"slug":96,"count":97,"latest_published_at":98},"Reviews","reviews",34,"2026-10-08T14:00:22.000Z",{"name":100,"slug":101,"count":102,"latest_published_at":103},"How-To","how-to",8,"2026-10-05T09:00:00.000Z"]