Artificial Intelligence can increase the creativity of select individuals.

However, AI often lowers collective creative diversity.

AI can become either a substitute, or a catalyst, for human creativity.

Suffice it to say, artificial intelligence (AI) has altered the creative landscape in several dramatic ways. Current figures indicate that about 24 percent of adults in the United States use AI chatbots daily. Beyond chatbots, 36 percent of Americans indicate that they interact with AI at least several times a day. This figure includes AI embedded in search engines, smartphones, social media, and smart devices. It would be safe to conclude that for a substantial portion of the American population, AI is a regular “cognitive partner” for brainstorming, problem-solving, crafting, and creating. And the numbers are rising.

This widespread usage raises the question embedded in this article’s title. That is, is AI an aid for our creative endeavors, or is it supplanting our natural creativity—the nonstop creative powers we had as youngsters? In response, let’s take a brief look at some compelling research.

What the Research Says

A 2024 creative writing experiment involved a group of 293 participants, each of whom was asked to write a short, eight-sentence story. The researchers noted that individuals who had access to AI-generated story ideas created narratives that were judged to be “more creative, better written, and more enjoyable.” This was particularly true for those subjects who were deemed to be less-creative writers. That said, there was also a notable trade-off—that is, AI-assisted stories were more similar to one another than those produced without the intervention of AI. The researchers’ conclusion was that AI can raise individual creativity while, at the same time, lowering the creative diversity of a group.

A prepublication research paper (2024/2025) described an experiment in which 800 individuals were........

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