The Discovery and Innovation of AI Does Not Qualify as Creativity

This paper explores the possibility that AI can be creative. The output of AI sometimes appears to be creative, and has been attributed with creativity, but the processes used by AI are indicative of artificial creativity rather than authentic creativity. There are important implications. If AI is attributed with a creative capacity, for example, the meaning of “creativity” would be diluted such that it relegates some of what humans do when they are creative. This would in turn misinform and could mislead efforts to support human creativity. The focus on outcomes does allow objectivity, but the most useful explanations require description of the underlying processes. The present effort examines the processes involved in (a) human memory (b) human perception, and (c) human and machine learning. It suggests that generative AI is potentially innovative, but not truly creative. Further, the processes used by generative AI suggest discovery rather than creativity.