AI Boosts Individual Creativity but Reduces Collective Diversity, Studies Find

Four studies by researchers from the University of Washington, UCL, the University of Exeter, and the Wharton School reveal a paradox: generative AI enhances individual creativity but narrows the diversity of ideas across groups. In experiments on short-story writing, circular-economy solutions, humor caption contests, and collaborative storytelling, AI-assisted participants produced higher average quality but fewer breakthrough outliers. The studies found that AI in idea generation consistently reduced diversity, while AI used only for idea selection preserved variety. Human-led ideation with AI drafting maintained more diversity than AI-led creation. The authors recommend keeping humans in charge of early creative tasks, diversifying AI inputs, using multi-agent systems, and building guardrails to protect human originality. The research was published in Science Advances, Organization Science, and other outlets.