AI Enhances Individual Creativity but May Limit Group Innovation, Study Finds

Study of AI as a creative writing helper finds that it works, but there's a catch

A new experiment in writing shows the limits of AI-driven 'creativity.' Researchers are exploring the existential implications of generative AI, including whether or not the advancing technology will actually make humans more creatively capable -- or narrow our views. The new study, published in Science Advances by two University College London and University of Exeter researchers, tested hundreds of short stories created solely by humans against those created with the creative help of ChatGPT's generative AI. One group of writers had access solely to their own ideas, a second group could ask ChatGPT for one story idea, and a third could work with a set of five ChatGPT made prompts. The stories were then rated on "novelty, usefulness (i.e. likelihood of publishing), and emotional enjoyment," reported TechCrunch. "These results point to an increase in individual creativity at the risk of losing collective novelty," the study reads. "This dynamic resembles a social dilemma: With generative AI, writers are individually better off, but collectively a narrower scope of novel content is produced." Participants were "measured" for creativity prior to the writing session with a commonly used word-production task that builds a standard of creativity among respondents. Those who tested lower on these creativity proxy tests received better scores on their personal writing when given access to AI-generated ideas. But for those with already high creativity scores, AI ideas had little to no benefit on their story ratings. Additionally, the pool of stories aided by AI-generated prompts were deemed to be less diverse and displayed less unique writing characteristics, suggesting the limits of ChatGPT's all-around ingenuity. The new study's literary findings add to concerns about AI's self-consuming training loops, or the problem of AI models trained only on AI outputs degrading AI models themselves, Mashable's Cecily Mauran reported. Study author Oliver Hauser said in a comment to TechCrunch: "Our study represents an early view on a very big question on how large language models and generative AI more generally will affect human activities, including creativity... It will be important that AI is actually being evaluated rigorously -- rather than just implemented widely, under the assumption that it will have positive outcomes."

Artificial intelligence boosts creativity, but reduces variety - Earth.com

Recent studies have shown that incorporating artificial intelligence in the creative process can have some surprisingly beneficial effects, especially for those who struggle with creativity. However, these advancements may come with an unexpected quandary: a potential reduction in the diversity and novelty of our collective storytelling. Renowned researchers from two highly reputed institutions - the University of Exeter Business School, Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and the UCL School of Management, have delved into this riveting topic, exploring the involvement of AI in the realms of creativity and story-writing. Insights from the study indicated that AI assistance was able to "professionalize" stories, making them more enjoyable to read due to an increase in unexpected plot twists and generally improved writing quality. The result? Content that was far from dull. In an experiment involving 300 participants, each asked to write a micro story aimed at young adults, AI proved to be a significant asset for those deemed less creative. The AI-assisted stories were up to 26.6% better written and 15.2% less boring than their human-only counterparts. The borrowed intelligence, however, offered limited benefits to the participants who were naturally more creative. While AI does seem to enhance individual creativity, the study also indicates a resultant decline in collective novelty. The AI-assisted stories showcased notable similarities to one another, pointing towards a loss of variety and diversity in content generation. The research was carried out with the participants divided into three groups. Some had no access to AI help, some could utilize ChatGPT to provide a three-sentence starting idea, and others could choose from up to five AI-generated ideas. The quality of these stories was then assessed by 600 individuals, based on their novelty and "usefulness." The results showed that writers with access to AI witnessed the most significant improvements in their creativity. Their stories scored 8.1% higher for novelty and 9% higher for usefulness compared to those written without AI assistance. An exciting revelation from this study was the capability of AI to level the playing field between less and more creative writers. By providing less creative writers access to five AI ideas, their novelty improved by 10.7% and usefulness by 11.5% compared to those who used no AI concepts. The writing quality, enjoyability, and intrigue of the stories were significantly enhanced, putting writers with low creativity scores on par with their more creative counterparts. Despite these positive impacts, there's a more significant underlying concern. Using OpenAI's embeddings application programming interface (API), the researchers identified a 10.7% increase in similarity between stories that used one generative AI idea, compared with the group that wrote without AI assistance. Professor Oliver Hauser, Deputy Director of the Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, highlighted the importance of this study. "This is a first step in studying a question fundamental to all human behavior: how does generative AI affect human creativity? Our results provide insight into how generative AI can enhance creativity, and removes any disadvantage or advantage based on the writers' inherent creativity." Professor Anil Doshi from the UCL School of Management added: "While these results point to an increase in individual creativity, there is a risk of losing collective novelty. If the publishing industry were to embrace more generative AI-inspired stories, our findings suggest that the stories would become less unique in aggregate and more similar to each other." Professor Hauser warned that this downward spiral shows parallels to an emerging social dilemma: if individual writers find out that their generative AI-inspired writing is evaluated as more creative, they have an incentive to use generative AI more in the future, but by doing so the collective novelty of stories may be reduced further. "In short, our results suggest that despite the enhancement effect that generative AI had on individual creativity, there may be a cautionary note if generative AI were adopted more widely for creative tasks." Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.

Research Shows AI Fosters Individual Creativity, But Not in Larger Groups

A new experiment conducted by researchers at the University College London and University of Exeter found that AI can potentially help foster creativity for some individuals; however, it dampens creativity when looked at as part of a larger group. The experiment, which was published in Science Advances this week, specifically focused on people writing short stories. Hundreds of people wrote short stories roughly eight sentences in length. One group wrote independently, while the other could use GPT-4 for a story idea, along with a few sentences. One final group could get up to five story starters. After the groups were done writing, an independent group rated the stories based on novelty, enjoyment, and whether or not they thought they might be publish-worthy. Researchers also tested participants' creativity in a word-production task commonly used in academia beforehand. In the end, the people with lower creativity scored the weakest on their finished stories; however, they saw the most significant gains when they used AI to help them. The more options those people were given, the higher their ultimate score. On the other hand, however, people who already scored higher on the creativity metric didn't see any benefit to AI's help, and in some cases, those writers even scored lower. Researchers also discovered that the AI-assisted stories, while better overall, were also similar to each other. "While these results point to an increase in individual creativity, there is risk of losing collective novelty," the researchers said. "Specifically, if the publishing (and self-publishing) industry were to embrace more generative AI-inspired stories, our findings suggest that the produced stories would become less unique in aggregate and more similar to each other." The research suggests that while AI could be helpful for creative pursuits, if it's adopted in a widespread way it ultimately will end up creating simialr things.