Date
Publisher
ScienceAdvances
Creativity is core to being human. Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) holds promise for humans to be more creative by offering new ideas, or less creative by anchoring on GenAI ideas. We study the causal impact of GenAI on the production of a creative output in an online experimental study where some writers are could obtain ideas for a story from a GenAI platform. Access to GenAI ideas causes an increase in the writer's creativity with stories being evaluated as better written and more enjoyable, especially among less creative writers. However, GenAI-enabled stories are more similar to each other than stories by humans alone. Our results have implications for researchers, policy-makers and practitioners interested in bolstering creativity, but point to potential downstream consequences from over-reliance.
Study at a glance
- Question: How does access to generative AI affect individual creativity and the diversity of creative writing?
- Setting and data: Online study with writers producing stories
- Method: Online experiment comparing writers with access to generative AI story ideas to those without
Why it matters
Creativity is core to being human. Generative artificial intelligence holds promise for humans to be more creative by offering new ideas, or less creative by anchoring on GenAI ideas.
Key findings
- In an online story-writing experiment, access to generative AI ideas increased writers' creativity, resulting in stories evaluated as better written and more enjoyable.
- The creativity improvements from generative AI ideas were especially pronounced among less creative writers.
- Stories written with generative AI were more similar to each other than stories created by humans alone.
Summary drafted with AI from the paper’s abstract and may contain errors. See the full paper for details.
Who is the user?
Who age?
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Study design
