Peeping at creAItivity through a keyhole: creative self-perceptions, potential, and enhancement of GenAI chatbots

Abstract The work in this paper investigates (a) the (emerging) creative self-perceptions of GenAI chatbots, (b) their creative potential, (c) their ability to self-assess the creativity of their own outcomes and that of their peers, and (d) how their creative outcomes can be improved. To this end, an exploratory study was implemented involving three popular commercial chatbots: ChatGPT (GPT-4o - paid) by OpenAI, Claude (3.5 Sonnet - paid) by Anthropic and Gemini (1.5 Flash - free) by Google. The study included four phases and employed well-established methods and tools from the scientific domain of (human) creativity research, including the Short Scale of Creative Self (SSCS) questionnaire, a verbal test of convergent-integrative thought from the Evaluation of Potential Creativity (EPoC) battery which was scored by the chatbots and human experts, and the Dynamic Assessment (DA) approach and humor as means for enhancing the chatbots’ creative outcomes. The results of the study are encapsulated in 21 original and, sometimes, surprising observations and in 6 practical insights regarding the use of GenAI chatbots as creativity-support tools.