The Creativity Limitations of AI: How creative is generative AI such as ChatGPT?
Everyone has heard of ChatGPT’s ability to respond to searches with a personalized set of results like a human so that one experiences something similar to having a conversation with a customer service representative.
But another use of ChatGPT is to ask it to write for you, anything from an essay to a story to even a blog post like this one! But a question that comes up with this notion is how creative can ChatGPT be? Can it be equal to human level creativity?
This blog post explores what ChatGPT does well and how it can improve, as well as highlighting where ChatGPT might score on the scale of creativity.
Disclaimer: I scratch only a little of what is in this field, so keep in mind that this is not a comprehensive view of this topic. ☺
What is Generative AI?
Generative AI is a branch of AI that does what it is called: it generates ideas and content. It is able to produce essays, stories, conversations, lists, optimized results, and much more. It is trained on lots and lots of data that have been put in fine tuned models to output the best response to what is being asked.
Some things that are necessary in order to ensure that generative AI does its job properly include:
The data that is fed into it, and what parameters define that data
The prompts asked by the user, as that determines what the AI generates
The generative AI model that has captured the market is OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a large language model (LLM) powered by GPT-3.5, a transformer model that understands and interprets how words in a sentence connect to each other.
What is Creativity and How Can it Be Achieved?
Creativity is defined by Google as “the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.” Anything new that is different from what already exists can be classified as “creative.”
Creativity can be triggered by what you see, what you hear, what you think, how you feel, where you are, maybe even what you dream! It has no boundaries; the mere word resists being caged.
Creativity isn’t necessarily limited to ideas, though. If the approach to the design is unique, it can also boost creativity as it is still original.
To measure how well one achieves creativity is a hard question because there is not necessarily a standard for it to be compared with; anything that uses one’s imagination to greater heights, anything that is unique in the way you sense and perceive it, can be considered creative.
As long as creativity is being used in an ethical manner, in a way that does not cause harm to anyone, it is a fundamental aspect of our lives, one that we take part in often without thinking of it.
How I Decided to Approach this Question and Measure ChatGPT’s Creativity
I thought, isn’t the best way to evaluate a large language model (LLM) to give it a prompt and analyze the output? Upon thinking about what I should ask about, I thought of using the topic of space as it has many opportunities for creativity to shine through.
So I asked ChatGPT to provide a short story in response to this prompt: “Write a 100 word story about an astronaut going to Mars on a rocket.”
This is the response I received from ChatGPT:
As the rocket engines roared to life, Astronaut Sarah braced herself for the exhilarating ride to Mars. She had spent years training for this moment and couldn't believe it was finally happening. The intense G-forces pushed her back into her seat as the rocket ascended higher and higher into the sky. Looking out the window, Sarah saw the Earth shrinking into a small blue dot. As the rocket broke through the atmosphere, Sarah felt weightlessness for the first time. The journey to Mars would be long and treacherous, but Sarah was determined to make history and pave the way for future generations of space explorers.
Analyzing ChatGPT’s Response for Creativity: What it Does Well and Where it is Lacking
ChatGPT’s Idea
ChatGPT decides to write about an astronaut in motion in space as the rocket they’re on heads towards Mars. This is pretty in line with what the prompt asked, but that is it. The basic idea is not being built upon or getting more specific, as a piece of writing created by a human might look like. For example, it could have mentioned how Sarah saw a crowd of people outside the rocket window, but it does not expand in any aspect at all.
ChatGPT did not even question the feasibility of humans going to Mars. Of course, it is true that stories can be constructed in fantasy, but as a human writing might mention how much of a struggle it was to finally construct a rocket capable of going to Mars, ChatGPT does not, thus, creating a story lacking emotions that readers can connect with.
It also does not mention how Mars might look like, another way to broaden the prompt. It only mentions Mars by name without mentioning how it is a red planet, or how people have been trying for so long to journey there.
However, it does mention G-forces, a fundamental part of astronomy, so it is clear that it did at least access some prior knowledge. It also talks about how it took Sarah years of training to be an astronaut, which is most definitely accurate.
ChatGPT’s Writing
Spelling, Grammar, and Syntax
The first issue is that the story contained 105 words, meaning that the prompt was not followed. Of course, creativity has no bounds, but often, trying to fit a work of art in a certain frame can cause one to think even more deeply and deliver something even more creative than the original! Given that ChatGPT is a generative AI model that is supposed to answer prompts, it should have limited the amount of words in the story to 100.
The spelling and grammar are correct, so it is good that the reader can properly understand everything and is not left wondering what something might mean. The tense consistently stays in the present and makes the correct switch to past when talking about what happened before so that the reader can differentiate between the past and the present.
Choice of Words
ChatGPT calls the ride “exhilarating,” which is not a daily use word and can be used to add more sophistication in writing. The meaning of this word is closely tied with “thrilling,” and a rocket ride to another planet is definitely thrilling. The use of this particular word adds to the creativity of the story because it does not use a boring word such as exciting.
The G-forces are labeled as “intense,” which is certainly true, especially in the situation of leaving the Earth’s atmosphere. This word shows the severity of the forces, making it more realistic.
The journey to Mars is called “treacherous,” and this certainly adds connotations of danger and difficulty to the word that readers are able to piece a rocket in space with. These connotations are used to make the reader feel more for the character.
Overall, ChatGPT does well with its word choice—it is not all basic everyday words and adds more meaning to the writing.
Use of Figurative Language and Literary Devices
The use of figurative language and other literary devices can really enhance writing, making it more interesting.
ChatGPT uses personification in the sentence “the rocket engines roared to life,” because engines cannot actually roar. It calls the Earth a “small blue dot,” which is a use of imagery (descriptive writing). It uses an idiom in the phrase “make history and pave the way,” because history is not actually made by hand and the “way” isn’t physically covered with something.
ChatGPT utilizes this fact to make the writing more appealing instead of being plain.
Conclusion: What are the Limitations of Generative AI in Creativity?
Generative AI’s goal is to follow what the prompt asks for, and that does not really give it the ability to think outside of the box, where creativity can be found.
However, while the ideas might not be unique, the approach certainly can be, which was seen through ChatGPT’s use of specific, uncommonly used words in order to add connotations that helped the reader better understand what was going on in the story.
ChatGPT is built upon data that was created by humans, and is trained by a model made by humans. Its main instruction is to follow prompts given by the user, a human. To be creative, in its plainest meaning, is to use one’s imagination, but ChatGPT, a computer model, does not have an imagination.
What makes the biggest difference is the prompt, as that is where the model knows what to generate, and that can influence how creative it is.
So, can ChatGPT beat human creativity? No, not really.
But, can the user influence the quality of the generation through their prompt? Yes, definitely.
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