Using AI to test and develop your creativity

Welcome to the cultivate section of the course. This is where we are going to develop your latent creative abilities with a few exercises. We'll start by diving into a fascinating experiment known as the Guilford's Alternative Uses Test. If you've ever found yourself wondering, how can I measure my creativity? Well, wonder no more because this is it. I made a version of this test available online for years, making it accessible to anyone curious enough to try it out. So I thought I'd have a go at recreating it in ChatGPT and well, it works brilliantly. The test is really simple. You're given a random object, and your task is to dream up as many alternative uses for that object within five minutes or longer if you've got more time in your hands. Once you've rattled down a list of your ideas, separated by commas, the AI will give you feedback on your performance, and it will use the same criteria as academics do. How many alternative uses you come up with? The more the better, obviously. How many different subject areas you explore? How elaborate your descriptions are? And how original your suggestions are? Right. Let me give you a demonstration. Okay. So we're in ChatGPT and we're using GPT-4, which currently you've got access to through the Plus account, but it may be that you've got access through a normal unpaid account by the time this video comes out. So let's paste in our prompt and I shall read through it. "I'm a creative professional looking to improve my thinking abilities and come up with ideas I wouldn't normally have. I want you to help me run the Guilford's Alternative Uses Test on myself by giving me a random object suggestion and telling me I've got five minutes to write as many alternative uses as possible, separated by commas, into the text box. Once I enter my response, give me a value for:" And then here's the four values of academics use to measure the Guilford's test. Fluency; the total number of alternative uses I come up with. Originality; how unique my answers are. Flexibility; the breadth of categories or domains I cover. Elaboration; the amount of detail I give in my answers. "Then ask me if I'd like to see some of your suggestions. If I say yes, give me ten imaginative suggestions of alternative uses for the object, covering as many different subject domains and adding detail to each answer." Okay. Let's press this button and see what it does for us. "Sure thing! I love the enthusiasm to challenge yourself and expand your thinking. Let's jump into the Guilford's Alternative Uses Test. Your random object is paperclip." Now that's a classic one. You get that quite a lot in the Guilford's test. "You have five minutes to write as many alternative uses as possible for a paperclip. Once you're done, list them all here, separated by commas. Ready? Go!" Okay. I'm going to give myself five minutes, starting now. Okay. There we go. My time is up. So now hit the purple button and let's see what ChatGPT has to say about these ideas that I've rattled in in five minutes. Okay. It's being flattering upfront here. "Great job. That's quite the list of alternative uses for a paperclip. Let's break down your performance: Fluency: You come up with 14 alternative uses for a paperclip in five minutes. Originality: Your answers are quite unique, especially using it as a pole vault pope for a cockroach and creating a sculpture for a miniature art gallery for mice. Impressive creativity!" Okay. "Flexibility: You've covered different domains like fashion, art, home improvement, automotive repair, gaming, gardening, and more. There's a good breadth of categories there. Elaboration: You've given a decent amount of details for many of the answers, adding context and explaining how the paperclip could function in various scenarios." So I've done the paperclip one previously because this is quite a popular one. So don't be impressed by this. I have come up with ideas for this one before because it's not an unusual one to do. "Would you like to see some of my imaginative suggestions for alternative uses for a paperclip?" Well, yes, because when I've run this test, paperclip's been one of the things we've used, and I've seen what people come up with for this. So I want to see what ChatGPT comes up with. So I will say yes. Please hold on, I need to select the textbox. "Yes please!" Okay. Here are ten imaginative suggestions for alternative uses for a paperclip from ChatGPT. Bookmark for ants: Nice. I like that. Miniature bow and arrow. Temporary eyeglass repair: Absolutely. These have been causing me problems recently. Nano-spatula for tiny pancakes: Oh, I like that nano-spatula. Artistic hanger for doll clothes. Lilliputian ice skates. Pocket garden trellis. Emergency zipper pull. Yeah. Micro-sculpture tool for clay modeling. Travel-sized labyrinth game. Okay. There's stuff that I've not seen here before. I mean, particularly here, nano-spatula for tiny pancakes. That's way out there. That's really good. I've seen other things in here, but that's great. It's done a really good job here. Now, the point of getting ChatGPT to the goal is to kind of give you the impetus to go, oh, I need to try harder. That's great, I really liked what it did there. It came up with some unusual stuff. So you can learn from the output that you get from ChatGPT, so that when you run this test repeatedly on yourself as a great creative exercise, you will improve as you get to see how ChatGPT approaches this as well. Now, let me be transparent here. I've taken this test a few times and I've even conducted it on research groups, so don't worry if you don't get the same score that I got, because the important thing is not the score, it's the growth. The more you play with this, the better you're going to become at creating new ideas. And hey, here's a bonus, this little test might just come in handy when you're on a train, hungry, staring at a delicious yogurt, and you don't have a spoon. So what things can you put to the alternative use to get the yogurt out of here? No, that would just be gross. I don't think I'll be able to get into the corners with it. Whoa! Maybe.