The Janus-Faced Effects of Ideation with Generative AI on Individual Creativity and Dignity

This paper examines the dual role of generative AI in ideation tasks, exploring its potential to both enhance and constrain creative performance and individual dignity (i.e., how people perceive their values). The research identifies three characteristics of Generative AI—breadth of exploration, depth of exploration, and hallucination—in a collaborative ideation setting. We further propose three novel constructs in the ideation process, AI-enabled serendipity, idea enhancement, and fixation on AI generation, to understand how the characteristics of generative AI influence both the ideation performance and individual dignity perceptions. To test the proposed research model, this study proposes a 2*2 between-subjects experimental design, employing a self- developed conversational GenAI tool, Idea Hub, with four variations in the breadth and depth of exploration. This research aims to fill gaps in the literature by systematically examining the influence of GenAI characteristics on human-AI collaboration, with implications for enhancing human creativity while preserving human dignity.