The Creativity Paradox: When AI Thinks for Us

I argue that if we continue using AI in the way we are today, we risk weakening two fundamentally human capabilities: creativity and rational thinking. Creativity grows through use; the more we exercise it, the greater our capacity to make connections, solve problems and generate novel insights. But what happens when we increasingly outsource that process to AI? Using Graham Wallas’s four-stage model of creativity, I explore what happens when AI begins to intervene in, shorten, or remove parts of the human creative process, and why this could ultimately make us less innovative.

I connect this to corporate innovation (my area of research) and make the case for a more ethical approach to AI – coining my own theory of ethical AI, that is, one that does not replace the human worker or remove us from the creative process, but instead uses AI as a complementary tool to extend human cognition.

The question at the centre of the talk is simple: how do we use AI to become more creative, rather than allowing it to do our thinking for us?

About the speaker:

I am a scholar-practitioner with a background in innovation and design. I hold two master’s degrees: one in Innovation, Creativity and Leadership, and another in Design Innovation. Professionally, I have worked in innovation management at RELEX Group and as a service designer at BT Group. I am currently completing a doctorate at Durham University, where my research explores how entrepreneurial climate influences the front end of innovation and a firm’s innovation portfolio. Alongside my academic work, I am the founder of 3E Labs, a design innovation studio, and I am developing an ethical AI SaaS tool to support corporate innovation.