How Algorithms Shape Creative Thinking

Creativity is up. Diversity is down. Everyone’s talking about how GenAI speeds up creativity. But speed isn’t the real shift. What’s actually changed is how we create, and who does what. A few years ago, being creative meant starting from zero. Now it means knowing what to keep, what to cut, and what to remix. The best creatives I know aren’t just creators. They’re: ➡️ Curators, picking from AI outputs ➡️ Editors, tightening what matters ➡️ Prompt writers, shaping the next round GenAI doesn’t replace the process. It reshapes it. Taste matters more than originality. Workflow matters more than perfection. But here’s the catch: When everyone uses the same tools in the same way, The work starts to look the same. Sameness scales. A Science Advances study showed that while GenAI boosts individual creativity, it reduces the diversity of what gets made. Polished? Yes. Different? Not always. If we’re not careful, AI might make us more productive but less original. So the next creative skill isn’t generation. It’s direction. → Inject human unpredictability → Break the template → Ask better questions than the model can answer Curious: What’s one way you’re protecting originality in your creative or product work? Let’s trade notes 👇 🖼️ Image: AI-generated via Ideogram

🤔 Does AI Make Us More Creative or More Average? Most university students in the U.S. and the U.K. use AI in their studies. As AI becomes increasingly intelligent and accessible, concerns have emerged around its impact on independent thinking and creativity. Writing is one area that clearly illustrates this concern. While students report that AI tools are helpful for tutoring or brainstorming, overreliance on AI in writing may hinder their ability to think independently and reduce their creative thinking. A study published in July 2024 and cited highly since then examined this issue. It examined whether GPT-4 can enhance or hinder creativity in the context of creative writing. Over 150 participants in the UK took part and were divided into three groups: one group wrote without any AI assistance, another received a single round of helpful ideas from GPT, and a third received up to five rounds of GPT-generated suggestions throughout their short story writing process. An independent panel of human evaluators assessed the final stories for several criteria including creativity, humor, and overall quality. 💡 Researchers found that the stories written with GPT ideas were rated as more creative, funnier, and better written, but importantly only for those participants who had lower scores on a creativity (divergent thinking) test administered beforehand. 💡 In contrast, participants who were already highly creative did not show an increase in creativity when they used GPT, perhaps due to a ceiling effect. While they still opted to use AI support when available, their story quality did not significantly improve. This suggests that GPT may serve as a helpful support for creative writing, especially for those with less experience or lower baseline creativity. 😲 However, there was a critical trade-off. Stories written with AI assistance tended to be more similar to one another. This suggests a potential homogenizing effect by making our ideas and outputs more alike. These findings offer valuable insights into how AI affects human cognition, especially creativity. 👍 On one hand, AI can empower those who are less confident or less experienced in a given domain to produce higher-quality work. 👎 On the other hand, it may reduce opportunities for truly original ideas to stand out—and over time, may contribute to a convergence of thought that makes our work more average. 🤔 One important caution that I suggest for interpretation: in this study, participants were only allowed limited use of GPT (between one and five rounds of helpful suggestions). This form of controlled AI use may represent an optimal balance between human thought and machine support. 🙁 In real-world settings, however, students can prompt AI to generate entire essays in a matter of seconds. This convenience drastically increases the risk of diminishing independent thinking and creativity in students during the critical developmental period.

🎨 Can AI be truly creative—or just brilliantly combinational? This question hit me hard the other day when I was discussing with an artist. We’ve all seen AI generate jaw-dropping art, haunting music, and prose so beautiful it felt human. And yet… I can’t shake the feeling that it’s just the most sophisticated cut-and-paste machine in history. The numbers are fascinating: → 90% of creators say AI sparks new ideas — yet over 50% fear it’s making all ideas look the same. → Across 28 studies, AI matches human creativity… but when humans + AI work together, creativity jumps significantly. → AI can generate more ideas, but humans still win on originality and diversity. → With AI, writers boost novelty by 8% and usefulness by 9% — but risk creative convergence. → Creativity scholars call this “artificial creativity” — outputs that may be original and effective, but lack the self-actualization, emergence, and human context that define true creativity. It reminds me of the 4P and 6P theories of creativity: it’s not just the product that matters—it’s the person, the process, the environment. AI can simulate the product, but without human intent, the process feels hollow. It reminds me of the 6P theory of creativity: Creativity isn’t just about the output (product) — it’s also about the person creating it, the process they follow, and the environment they’re in. AI can generate an output, but it doesn’t have a lived experience, emotions, or intent, which are what give creativity meaning. In IRREPLACEABLE, we call this the “Creative Co-Pilot” approach: ✅ Let AI generate combinations at scale. ✅ Filter through our uniquely human ethics, emotions, and lived experience. ✅ Add intent—because meaning is what turns remixing into originality. For me, the future of creativity isn’t AI or human. It’s AI + human. One brings infinite combinations. The other brings meaning. 💬 So here’s my question to you: When AI “creates,” do you see true creativity… or something brilliant yet hollow without us? #AI #Creativity #Innovation #HumanPlusAI