Is artificial intelligence more creative than humans?

By Isobel Williams via SWNS

Artificial intelligence platform ChatGPT may actually be more creative than humans, a new study has found.

We have always hoped that one thing computers could never outdo us in was creativity.

But in a new experiment, AI platform ChatGPT outperformed humans in standardized tests for creative potential.

In the study, 151 human participants were pitted against ChatGPT-4 in three tests designed to measure divergent thinking, which is considered to be an indicator of creative thought.

Divergent thinking is characterized by the ability to generate a unique solution to a question that does not have one expected solution.

The three tests utilized were the Alternative Use Task, which asks participants to come up with creative uses for everyday objects like a rope or a fork; the Consequences Task, which invites participants to imagine possible outcomes of hypothetical situations; and the Divergent Associations Task, which asks participants to generate 10 nouns that are as semantically distant as possible.

Answers were evaluated for the number of responses, length of response and semantic difference between words.

In the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, GPT-4 provided more original and elaborate answers than the human participants.

Assistant professor Darya Zabelina from the University of Arkansas said: “Overall, GPT-4 was more original and elaborate than humans on each of the divergent thinking tasks, even when controlling for fluency of responses.

“In other words, GPT-4 demonstrated higher creative potential across an entire battery of divergent thinking tasks.

“It is important to note that the measures used in this study are all measures of creative potential, but the involvement in creative activities or achievements are another aspect of measuring a person’s creativity.”

The researchers say that perhaps AI was able to be more creative as it did not feel a need to be grounded in the real world as humans might.

However, the team still believes that their findings demonstrate that large language models are rapidly progressing and outperforming humans in ways they have not before.

Doctoral student Kent Hubert said: “AI, unlike humans, does not have agency and is dependent on the assistance of a human user.

"Therefore, the creative potential of AI is in a constant state of stagnation unless prompted.

“Moving forward, future possibilities of AI acting as a tool of inspiration, as an aid in a person’s creative process or to overcome fixedness is promising.”