A Comparison Study of Human and Machine-Generated Creativity

Abstract Creativity is a fundamental feature of human intelligence. However, achieving creativity is often considered a challenging task, particularly in design. In recent years, using computational machines to support people in creative activities in design, such as idea generation and evaluation, has become a popular research topic. Although there exist many creativity support tools, few of them could produce creative solutions in a direct manner, but produce stimuli instead. DALL·E is currently the most advanced computational model that could generate creative ideas in pictorial formats based on textual descriptions. This study conducts a Turing test, a computational test, and an expert test to evaluate DALL·E’s capability in achieving combinational creativity comparing with human designers. The results reveal that DALL·E could achieve combinational creativity at a similar level to novice designers and indicate the differences between computer and human creativity.