ChatGPT generates more ideas than humans, but they are too similar — study

A new study has found that ChatGPT can generate more creative ideas than a single person, but they are too similar to each other, Axios reports, citing an article in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

Participants in the study were asked to come up with an idea for a toy involving a cube and a fan. Some used ChatGPT, others used their own thoughts, or combined personal ideas with an internet search. It turned out that 94% of the ideas generated using ChatGPT were repetitive in content , while those who thought independently or with a search generated significantly more unique concepts.

The researchers used both GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, and while the latter was slightly more creative, it still fell significantly short of humans in terms of the variety of ideas . One example is that nine participants using ChatGPT independently suggested the same name for a toy: Build-a-Breeze Castle.

A study by Wharton School professors found that groups that relied solely on AI tended to come up with the same solutions , while individual thinking provided a wider range of options. This is what Professor Tervish calls the “biological diversity” of ideas, which is essential for a healthy creative ecosystem.

While ChatGPT can't completely replace human brainstorming, it can be a useful tool if you combine its suggestions with your own ideas. The researchers recommend using the chain of thought prompting technique — asking the AI to generate several ideas and telling them to be different.