The societal and ethical relevance of computational creativity

Creativity is fundamental to human flourishing: The paper argues that creativity—understood broadly across natural evolution, entrepreneurship, and social innovation—is essential for long-term human well-being, suggesting that AI systems should be designed to support rather than undermine creative processes.

Most current AI systems actively discourage creativity: Mainstream AI tends to be "anti-creative" by optimizing for predictability, accuracy, and control, which the authors argue creates moral costs when these systems are deployed in domains where human creativity matters, such as education, work, and problem-solving.

There's a tension between AI ethics priorities: The paper identifies a potential trade-off between values commonly promoted in AI ethics—particularly explainability and accuracy—and the need for creativity-enabling AI, suggesting that responsible AI development may require balancing these competing goals rather than maximizing all of them simultaneously.

Computational creativity is increasingly important: The authors note that creativity-enabling AI systems are emerging and rising in prevalence, making it timely for ethicists and policymakers to develop frameworks that value and encourage computational systems designed to enhance rather than replace human creative capacity.

Ethics frameworks need updating: The paper calls for AI ethics to become "more hospitable to creativity-enabling AI," implying that current ethical guidelines may inadvertently discourage the development of systems that could benefit society by supporting human innovation and creative endeavors.