Creative Divergence

Definition

Creative Divergence examines creative divergence within the broader domain of how AI changes ideation, judgement, authorship, skill and creative dependence.

Why this matters

Creative Divergence can materially affect human agency, capability, belonging, livelihoods, culture, trust, resilience and long-term societal outcomes.

Research questions

Under which conditions does creative divergence improve human and system outcomes, how do effects vary across populations and contexts, and what safeguards prevent dependency, exclusion, distortion or loss of agency?

Hypotheses

A transparent, participatory and human-directed approach to creative divergence, with explicit safeguards and longitudinal evaluation, will improve creative novelty; usefulness; diversity; creator control; skill growth; attribution; dependence; satisfaction compared with opaque, automation-first or short-term approaches.

Proposed methods

controlled creative tasks; longitudinal portfolio analysis; expert and audience review; process tracing; co-design; dependency testing; literature and policy review; expert and affected-user interviews; reproducibility testing; methods adapted specifically to Creative Divergence

Stakeholders and beneficiaries

creators; cultural custodians; communities; educators; researchers; publishers; platforms; collecting societies; libraries; archives; museums; regulators; funders