Abstract:

The launch of the generative AI tool, ChatGPT, in late 2022 has disrupted education, from primary to tertiary levels. ChatGPT is able to produce responses to many traditional assessment tasks – essays, for example – that have many educational systems scrambling to understand the implications. Even before the wide availability of ChatGPT, many claims were also made regarding the ability of AI to produce “creative” outputs. If valid – if ChatGPT and other AI tools can produce creative outputs – these claims have profound implications for education, the development of 21st century skills, and for the future or work. The argument that AI will take over routine, algorithmic physical and cognitive tasks, leaving humans to focus on unpredictable, non-algorithmic and creative activities – the basis of discussions of the future of work – seems to be profoundly under threat. If AI can do everything, from unskilled, manual labour through to creative problem solving, then the future of work for humans is bleak.

This paper refutes this dystopian hypothesis, arguing that generative AI – ChatGPT included – is not able to produce creative outputs. The paper begins by setting out the standard definition of creativity and goes on to explain why the outputs of ChatGPT lack creativity. Examples are given, including from activities such story-writing, as well as stereotypical ideation tasks (e.g., alternate uses for common objects), and even a common test of divergent thinking. The paper then continues by explaining how generative AI can, in generating uncreative outputs, serve as a useful adjunct to human creativity. By generating examples of what is not creative, a tool like ChatGPT nevertheless establishes a benchmark for what is needed to be creative. The paper will explore the use of ChatGPT as an input to common ideation processes (e.g., brainstorming), and examines how this can enhance both human ideation (i.e., cognition) as well as boost individual creative self-efficacy.

The paper will conclude by discussing the fact that, despite these AI tools, creativity will remain a core human competency, and why education, at all levels, must continue to focus on the development of 21st century skills.

Keywords:

Creativity, AI, ChatGPT, Skills, Education.