Artists vs AI?

Some folks that are the most upset about the growth in artificial intelligence are the creatives. Artists, musicians, writers and the like have lamented that AI will be the end of creativity or that AI is stealing all their intellectual property. While both of those cases have merit, another option may be the creatives teaming up with AI to produce even better work.

We all have our ways to boost creativity. Maybe it's spending time outside, writing in a journal, listening to music, or looking at art we love. Well, researchers at the University of Exeter are exploring if AI could be another tool to help us come up with new ideas.

They asked 300 people to write short stories of exactly 8 words each. Some wrote from scratch, while others used ChatGPT to brainstorm first. Then 600 people rated these stories on originality and quality.

Getting story ideas from ChatGPT helped most participants, especially those who don't consider themselves very creative. People who got five AI-generated ideas performed about 9% better than others. But the results weren't the same for everyone.

While AI improved individual scores, it also made the results more similar overall. This suggests that relying too much on AI might actually reduce creativity at a larger scale. The research indicates that AI can be useful for creative work, but we should use it carefully. AI generates a mix of original ideas and clichés, so it's not perfect.

AI won't replace our other creative habits, but it can be a helpful tool when we're stuck or need fresh ideas. I use is for ideation in quite a few different areas. I find that it is a good starting point but often the suggestions leave me scratching my head at its simplicity as I toss it all out and do it myself.

What do you think about using AI for creativity? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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