Artificial intelligence (AI) could be capable of outperforming human creativity, according to a new study published in Scientific Reports last month.

The , conducted by researchers from the University of Arkansas, pitted ChatGPT-4, the natural language processing model (NLP) by OpenAI, against 151 human participants in three tests designed to measure divergent thinking, or the ability to provide unique answers to questions that do not have one expected solution.

The questions were under three categories: 鈥淎lternative Use Task,鈥� which prompted both human respondents and AI to provide alternative uses for objects such as a fork or a rope; 鈥淐onsequences Task,鈥� which asked for responses of hypothetical situations; and 鈥淒ivergent Association Tasks,鈥� which requested 10 nouns that are as semantically distant as possible, such as 鈥渃at鈥� and 鈥渙ntology.鈥�

鈥淥verall, GPT-4 was more original and elaborate than humans on each of the divergent thinking tasks, even when controlling for fluency of responses,鈥� reads a quote attributed to the study鈥檚 authors in a .

鈥淚n other words, GPT-4 demonstrated higher creative potential across an entire battery of divergent thinking tasks,鈥� the researchers stated in the release.

The study points out that a potential reason for major discrepancies between human and GPT-4 responses was the human tendency to ground responses in the real world. In other words, humans are more attuned to conventionality, which makes for more conventional responses, the researchers explained.

The study notes that AI still depends on human input to generate any content. As the authors explained in the release, 鈥渢he creative potential of AI is in a constant state of stagnation unless prompted.鈥�

According to the researchers, large language models now have the ability to outperform humans in ways they could not before, but the extent of their competitiveness with human creativity remains to be seen.

鈥淢oving forward, future possibilities of AI acting as a tool of inspiration, as an aid in a person鈥檚 creative process or to overcome fixedness is promising,鈥� the authors stated.