Extended Creativity: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Human-AI Creative Relations
Abstract
Artificial Intelligence holds significant potential to enhance human creativity. However, achieving this vision requires a clearer understanding of how such enhancement can be effectively realized. Drawing on a relational and distributed cognition perspective, we identify three fundamental modes by which AI can support and shape creative processes: Support, where AI acts as a tool; Synergy, where AI and humans collaborate in complementary ways; and Symbiosis, where human and AI cognition become so integrated that they form a unified creative system. These modes are defined along two key dimensions: the level of technical autonomy exhibited by the AI system (i.e., its ability to operate independently and make decisions without human intervention), and the degree of perceived agency attributed to it (i.e., the extent to which the AI is experienced as an intentional or creative partner). We examine how each configuration influences different levels of creativity from everyday problem solving to paradigm shifting innovation and discuss the implications for ethics, research, and the design of future human AI creative systems.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2506.10249,
title = {Extended Creativity: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Human-AI Creative Relations},
author = {Andrea Gaggioli and Sabrina Bartolotta and Andrea Ubaldi and Katusha Gerardini and Eleonora Diletta Sarcinella and Alice Chirico},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.10249},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
36 pages, 3 figures. This conceptual paper proposes a taxonomy of Extended Creativity systems and examines the relational dynamics between human and AI agents in creative processes. Suitable for readers in HCI, AI, cognitive science, and digital design. The illustrations were created by Francesco Giordano and are used with permission (not under CC license)