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We're Different, We're the Same: Creative Homogeneity Across LLMs

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arxiv 2501.19361 v1 pith:3BR2D3GO submitted 2025-01-31 cs.CY cs.AIcs.CLcs.LG

classification cs.CYcs.AIcs.CLcs.LG
keywords creativellmsresponsesoutputscreativityotheracrossassistants
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
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Numerous powerful large language models (LLMs) are now available for use as writing support tools, idea generators, and beyond. Although these LLMs are marketed as helpful creative assistants, several works have shown that using an LLM as a creative partner results in a narrower set of creative outputs. However, these studies only consider the effects of interacting with a single LLM, begging the question of whether such narrowed creativity stems from using a particular LLM -- which arguably has a limited range of outputs -- or from using LLMs in general as creative assistants. To study this question, we elicit creative responses from humans and a broad set of LLMs using standardized creativity tests and compare the population-level diversity of responses. We find that LLM responses are much more similar to other LLM responses than human responses are to each other, even after controlling for response structure and other key variables. This finding of significant homogeneity in creative outputs across the LLMs we evaluate adds a new dimension to the ongoing conversation about creativity and LLMs. If today's LLMs behave similarly, using them as a creative partners -- regardless of the model used -- may drive all users towards a limited set of "creative" outputs.

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Forward citations

Cited by 6 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. Where Models Converge and Humans Diverge: A Coverage Framework for Distributional Pluralism in Open-Ended Generation

    cs.CL 2026-08 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    LLM outputs are usually plausible but cover far less of the human response space than matched human samples do, with the biggest gap at the periphery of the human distribution.

  2. The One-Word Census: Answer-Choice Conformity Across 44 Language Models

    cs.CL 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Forty-four language models asked to name one thing per category converge on the same modal answers far more than people do, with newest flagships most conformist and persona-tuned models most divergent.

  3. Optimization Is Not All You Need

    cs.AI 2026-07 unverdicted novelty 6.0 of 10

    Optimization can measure how improbable generated text is but cannot tell whether that unlikelihood is error or invention, yet it now sets the protocols of legitimate language.

  4. Correlated Errors in Large Language Models

    cs.CL 2025-06 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Large language models from different providers and architectures often make the same errors, and more accurate models are especially likely to share mistakes.

  5. Generative AI and Creativity: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis

    cs.HC 2025-05 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    A meta-analysis of 28 studies finds no average creativity gap between GenAI and humans, a small boost when humans collaborate with GenAI, and a large drop in idea diversity in those collaborations.

  6. Avoidance Decoding for Diverse Multi-Branch Story Generation

    cs.CL 2025-09 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    Avoidance Decoding penalizes token choices that resemble previously generated story branches, using a hybrid concept-level and narrative-level similarity penalty, and reports large diversity gains across several LLMs.

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