AI chatbots can be more creative than humans, study finds

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When it comes to thinking creatively, who’s better—humans or chatbots? A recent study puts this question to the test, examining how well humans and advanced chatbots can think outside the box.

The surprising finding? Chatbots may be just as creative as the average person, if not more so in some cases. However, the most creative humans still have the upper hand. Let’s dig into what this study really means.

The Challenge: Finding New Uses for Old Things

The researchers looked at a type of creative thinking called “divergent thinking.” Basically, this is your ability to brainstorm a bunch of different solutions to a single problem.

In the study, they asked both humans and chatbots to think of alternative uses for four everyday items: a rope, a box, a pencil, and a candle.

The answers were judged based on four criteria: how many uses were listed (fluency), how different these uses were from each other (flexibility), how unique the ideas were (originality), and how detailed the explanations were (elaboration).

Chatbots Score Higher, But Humans Have More Range

The researchers used fancy methods to measure how closely the new use was related to the item’s original use (they called it “semantic distance”) and also had human judges rate the creativity of the ideas.

Turns out, on average, chatbots like ChatGPT3 and ChatGPT4 scored a bit higher than humans in both of these areas.

However, when it comes to the range of scores, humans took the cake. Some human answers scored much lower than any chatbot, but the best human responses also beat the best chatbot answers in seven out of eight scoring categories.

What Does This Mean for the Future?

So, what’s the big takeaway? Chatbots are getting good—really good—at generating creative ideas, almost as good as the average person.

But when it comes to the brightest sparks of creativity, humans still have the edge. The researchers think that we’re only scratching the surface, though.

They suggest that future studies could look at how chatbots and humans can work together to come up with even more creative solutions.

If you’ve ever felt like your computer could almost read your mind or come up with a smart idea, you’re probably not imagining things.

Technology is catching up, and soon, we might be collaborating with chatbots to unlock new levels of creativity. But don’t worry, the uniquely human spark of genius isn’t going anywhere just yet.

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