Is Creativity the Hidden Cost of AI?

Since its explosion into public awareness in 2022, AI has quickly evolved from a source of amusement to a serious productivity tool used across professional, academic, and creative fields. For many, the big question is: What can these AI tools, like ChatGPT and WolframAlpha, do for me? The answer is an ever-expanding list that grows more impressive by the day.

Take content creation, for example. All a writer needs to produce a passable article is an idea and a fragment of context for a generative AI like ChatGPT. Even the idea is optional - just prompt, “I need twelve ideas for blog posts suitable for a pet-food website.” Within moments, the AI delivers suggestions, drafts, and even SEO-optimised content. From there, a writer might tweak the tone, edit for warmth, and adjust for their audience.

Some call this process “putting a human in the loop.” Skilled creators, however, do more. They feed AI robust context, such as the ideal reader’s profile, the goal of the piece, or a seller’s unique value proposition, to ensure outputs are both relevant and engaging.

But while we’ve been busy asking What can AI do for me?, there’s a quieter, more critical question lurking in the background: What can AI do to me?

What Can AI Do to Me?

This isn’t about whether AI will take over the world or enslave humanity. Instead, I’m reminded of Marshall McLuhan’s insight: “We shape our tools, and afterwards our tools shape us.”

“We shape our tools, and afterwards our tools shape us.” - Marshall McLuhan

AI is already shaping the way we work, think, and create. For example, some worry that AI makes us lazier. But laziness isn’t inherently bad - many of history’s greatest innovations stem from the desire to save time and effort. Instead, the real concern lies in how uncritical reliance on AI might influence our originality and problem-solving skills.

Consider language. Historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari argues that AI has “hacked” the operating system of human civilization: language. While Harari’s claim that AI might generate new myths or cultural paradigms has been contested, his emphasis on language is compelling.

Linguists and psychologists have long understood the relationship between language and intelligence. Orwell’s 1984 explored this connection through “Newspeak,” a fictional effort to shrink the limits of language, and therefore critical thought. While Orwell’s dystopia is fiction, the underlying theories are real.

This brings us to a recent study from the University of Toronto, which revealed troubling findings. Participants who relied on AI assistance to solve problems later displayed more homogeneous, less creative thinking once the AI was removed. Those who hadn’t used AI, by contrast, retained a creative edge. The implication is clear, repeated reliance on AI may dull our ability to think outside the box.

This matters not just for individuals but for businesses and educators too. Creativity is a cornerstone of innovation. If AI’s use leads to homogenization in problem-solving or content creation, we risk stifling the originality that drives progress.

Is All Lost?

We can’t stop AI. The box is already open and closing it wouldn’t serve us (even if we could). AI holds immense potential. But if we’re to avoid creative decline, we need to use AI smarter.

In a recent newsletter, writing guru Ann Handley offers a compelling framework for how we should approach AI. Many creators, she argues, have it backwards: they let AI handle the creative work (which it isn’t equipped to do well) and step in only at the end to polish. Instead, humans should do the creative work, the heavy lifting of wrestling with ideas, forming opinions, and challenging assumptions.

This is the intelligent work: evaluating concepts, judging their strengths, exposing their weaknesses, and shaping them into something uniquely our own. AI has a role in helping us with research before the thinking phase, and after the process, when we’re organizing, refining, and enhancing the work we’ve already created.

How to Stay Original in the Age of AI

So, how can we ensure AI remains a tool for amplification rather than a crutch that diminishes our originality?

1. Think First, AI Second: Start with your own ideas. Use AI as an assistant to refine or organize, not to generate the essence of your work.
2. Engage with Complexity: Challenge yourself to solve problems without AI first. Then use AI to explore alternative perspectives or validate your conclusions.
3. Cultivate Creativity: Practice brainstorming, debate, and other activities that stretch your mind. The more you nurture originality, the less likely you’ll rely on AI for creative shortcuts.
4. Be Critical: Always review AI-generated outputs with a discerning eye. Ask yourself: Is this the best version of what I can create?

Final Thoughts

AI offers undeniable speed and productivity. It offers to achieve more in less time, an offer we can’t resist. But history and literature remind us that seemingly irresistible bargains often come with hidden costs. Like Faust, who traded his soul for unlimited knowledge and power, we risk losing our most precious traits: our creativity, originality, and critical thinking skills.

The allure of AI is real, but we need to ensure that in our quest for efficiency, we don’t sacrifice the very things that make us human. That means resisting the temptation to hand over all our cognitive and creative work to AI, even when it promises to do the job faster or more efficiently.?

McLuhan reminds us that we are shaped by our tools, and it’s up to us to ensure that the tools we use shape us into better thinkers, not narrower ones. Productivity may be tempting, but creativity and originality are priceless.

What Do You Think?

Some may argue that few tasks suited to AI require a creative edge - does that mean we should ignore, or downplay the cognitive risks of using AI? Feel free to share your thoughts below!

And if you want to read a slightly fleshed-out version of this article you'll find it on Medium.?