A new study examines whether AI could be an automated helpmeet in creative tasks, with mixed results: It appeared to help less naturally creative people write more original short stories — but dampened the creativity of the group as a whole. It’s a trade-off that may be increasingly common as AI tools impinge on creative endeavors.
The study is from researchers Anil Doshi and Oliver Hauser at University College London and University of Exeter, respectively, and was published in Science Advances. And while it’s necessarily limited due to its focus on short stories, it seems to confirm the feeling many have expressed: that AI can be helpful but ultimately offers nothing truly new in creative endeavors.
“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,” Hauser told TechCrunch in an email. “While there is huge potential (and, no doubt, huge hype) for this technology to have big impacts in media and creativity more generally, 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.”
The experiment had hundreds of people write very short stories (eight sentences or so), on any topic but suitable for a broad audience. One group just wrote; a second group was given the opportunity to consult GPT-4 for a single story idea with a few sentences (they could use as much or as little as they liked); a third could get up to five such story starters.
Source: Experiment finds AI boosts creativity individually — but lowers it collectively | TechCrunch
