AI prompts can boost writers’ creativity but result in similar stories, study finds

Once upon a time, all stories were written solely by humans. Now, researchers have found AI might help authors tell a tale.

A study suggests that ideas generated by the AI system ChatGPT can help boost the creativity of writers who lack inherent flair – albeit at the expense of variety.

Prof Oliver Hauser, a co-author of the research from the University of Exeter, said the results pose a social dilemma.

“It may be individually beneficial for you to use AI, but as a society if everyone used AI, we might all lose out on the diversity of unique ideas,” he said. “And, arguably, for creative endeavours we might sometimes need the ‘wild’ and ‘unusual’ ideas.”

The team asked 293 people to name 10 words that differed as much as possible from each other, allowing them to probe participants’ inherent creativity.

The researchers then randomly assigned participants one of three topics – an adventure in the jungle, on the open seas or on a different planet – and asked them to write an eight-sentence story appropriate for teenagers and young adults.

While a third of participants were offered no assistance, the others were split between those allowed to have one three-sentence starting idea pre-generated by ChatGPT, and those who could request five such ideas.

Overall, 82 of 100 participants took up the offer of a single AI-generated idea, while 93 of 98 participants offered access to five such ideas took at least one – and almost a quarter requested all five.

A further 600 participants, unaware of whether AI-generated ideas were used, read the resulting stories, and rated factors relating to novelty and usefulness – such as whether the story was publishable – on a nine-point scale.

The results, published in the journal Science Advances, reveal access to AI boosted these scores, with greater access associated with a larger effect: people with the option of five AI-generated ideas had an 8.1% increase, on average, in novelty ratings for their stories compared with people lacking the option of such help, while usefulness ratings rose by 9% on average.

“The effect sizes are not very large, but they were statistically significant,” said Dr Anil Doshi, a co-author of the study from University College London.

Stories written by people with the option of AI-generated ideas were also deemed more enjoyable, more likely to have plot twists and be better written.

However, it was writers with low inherent creativity that benefited most.

“We do not find that the most inherently creative people’s stories are being “supercharged” from AI ideas – this group of people is highly creative with and without the use of AI,” said Doshi.

The team also found participants with access to AI-generated ideas produced stories with greater similarity, something Doshi suggested is down to AI generating relatively predictable story ideas.

Hauser said such studies are important. “Evaluating the use of AI will be essential in making sure that we reap the benefits of this potentially transformative technology without falling prey to potential shortcomings,” he said.