{"id":115889,"date":"2025-04-04T14:53:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T18:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/?post_type=ftm_article&p=115889"},"modified":"2025-04-07T09:22:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T13:22:44","slug":"studio-ghibli-chatgpt-creativity","status":"publish","type":"ftm_article","link":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/opinion\/studio-ghibli-chatgpt-creativity","title":{"rendered":"The artifact isn’t the art: Rethinking creativity in the age of AI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last week, social media feeds lit up with ChatGPT-generated visuals in the style of Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio famous for its rich, dreamlike art. So many people were using the tool to recreate their profile pictures, personal photos, and favorite memes that it strained OpenAI\u2019s servers<\/a>, leading to CEO Sam Altman asking users to ease off Ghibli-style prompts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AI\u2019s recreations didn\u2019t go viral simply because they were beautiful, though. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studio Ghibli is known for its resistance to computer-generated shortcuts \u2014 all of its art is hand drawn and deeply expressive. For decades, this use of labor-intensive, traditional techniques had set the studio apart from much of the animation industry, but AI was now producing similar visuals in seconds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This new ability feels like it could be a turning point<\/a>, proof that AI is no longer just assisting with creativity \u2014 it\u2019s starting to perform<\/em> it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This brings up questions about the creative value of people in a world where an AI can mimic one of the most revered examples of human artistry with ease. The moment also invites a deeper question: What do we really mean when we talk about creativity? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not unusual for science to catch up to art, eventually. Nor is it unusual for art to catch up to the spiritual.\u201d<\/p>Rick Rubin, The Creative Act<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Scholars<\/a> traditionally define creativity as something that demonstrates both novelty and usefulness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi \u2014 known as the “father of flow<\/a>” \u2014 spent his career studying artists, scientists, and creators to understand how original ideas take shape. He made a crucial distinction between capital-C Creativity, the kind that transforms an entire domain, and personal creativity, which may never be publicly recognized but can deeply shape an individual\u2019s perception or experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Csikszentmihalyi argued that Creativity happens at the intersection of three elements: the individual with the idea, the domain in which that idea operates, and the field that recognizes and values the contribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Georgia O\u2019Keeffe is a perfect example. While her contemporaries pushed abstraction through chaos and energy (think Jackson Pollock), she explored tension through scale, color, and the natural world. Her work wasn\u2019t fully embraced at first, but today, she is recognized as a pillar of modern art. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, Einstein\u2019s theory of relativity didn\u2019t just present a new equation \u2014 it transformed how we understand space, time, and reality itself. It led to revolutions in physics, nuclear energy, even GPS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Good ideas have become harder to find.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

These domain-changing moments of Creativity come from individuals working with the tools of their time. Like paint or telescopes, AI is another tool, but what really sets it apart from the instruments of the past is its impact on pace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creators who once spent years developing an idea can now prototype in weeks. Projects that took months now iterate overnight. As someone who teaches entrepreneurship to young innovators, I see this transformation unfolding in real time as venture founders can generate, test, and move on to the next idea at a jarring tempo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This shift to an era in which ideas are generated, iterated, and shared at breakneck speed, often with AI in the loop, has been described as Creativity 4.0<\/a>, and it comes at a critical moment \u2014 despite increasing resources devoted to R&D, breakthrough innovations are becoming scarcer, according to a 2020 paper out of Stanford University<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essentially, good ideas have become harder to find. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this point, Wharton professor and AI expert Ethan Mollick has said that today\u2019s generative AIs could transform research in at least four ways<\/a> and potentially \u201crestart the slowing engine of innovation,\u201d breathing new life into academic research, which has become increasingly specialized and incremental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI doesn\u2019t feel tension. It doesn\u2019t labor through ambiguity. It doesn\u2019t explore.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

AI can\u2019t do it alone, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through his research, Csikszentmihalyi came to the conclusion<\/a> that creativity isn\u2019t only rational: \u201cReason is only one type of information that passes through attention. Percepts, feelings, and motives\u2026all participate in what we call thinking.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the aspect of creativity that AI lacks. It doesn\u2019t feel tension<\/a>. It doesn\u2019t labor through ambiguity. It doesn\u2019t explore. Where AI can offer 10 answers to a problem instantly, humans may wrestle for years to arrive at one \u2014 but it could be the only one that matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my classroom, I teach design thinking<\/a> \u2014 a creativity-based methodology for problem solving \u2014 and have already been integrating AI in the process. Without question, AI is a great partner for generating lots of ideas for solutions, but there are two aspects of design thinking that AI can\u2019t capture by itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, design thinking is about being immersed in a problem and deeply empathizing with humans that are facing it. This requires tapping into one\u2019s feelings and finding inspiration in analogous experiences that surround us in our day-to-day lives \u2014 acts that are impossible for AI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, while AI can find patterns and help us explore problems in lots of creative and intelligent ways, it does not have the unique human capacity of synthesis, which design expert Jon Kolko has defined<\/a> as \u201cthe ability for the human mind to grasp multiple, often incongruent and even competing ideas, and to manipulate them \u2014 at once, and in parallel \u2014 into something amazing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The future of creativity is not more and faster outputs, but more meaningful ones.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

So we return to the Ghibli-style AI trend. The real headline here isn\u2019t that AI can produce these beautiful images \u2014 it\u2019s that its imitations push us to reevaluate creativity and our role in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As AI\u2019s outputs get better and better, our edge over the machines will shift further into the invisible: It\u2019s our attention, framing, curiosity, and care that will set us apart. The focus will shift from what<\/em> we create to why<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Csikszentmihalyi didn\u2019t live to see this current version of generative AI, but I\u2019m sure he would agree that the future of creativity is not more and faster outputs, but more meaningful ones. Not optimized, but alive. Not simply new, but truly felt<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The future of creativity won\u2019t belong to those who generate the most, the fastest. It will belong to those who make things that matter. That\u2019s still human work, and it always will be \u2014 only now, we have a new tool to wield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ashish Bhatia is a Clinical Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at NYU Stern<\/a>. Subscribe to his Substack, But I’m Not an Entrepreneur<\/a>, for insights into the art and science of entrepreneurship.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019d love to hear from you! If you have a comment about this article or if you have a tip for a future Freethink story, please email us at tips@freethink.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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