From friction to synergy: The complex interplay of human creativity and AI

Abstract

This paper investigates the implications of increasingly intelligent technology environments on human creative thinking, with a focus on differentiating intrinsically human contributions to creativity from those that are amenable to technology-mediation. Confronted with rapid advances in technology, we argue that there remain affective, embodied, experiential, and socio-cultural human dimensions to creative thinking that should be recognized, monitored, and advanced. This is especially true for those that are foundational to creativity or act in frictional ways with technology, as they optimize the overall creative potentials of human-machine relationships. By examining the complex interplay between human consciousness and technological affordances, this paper also outlines several lenses that may promote a more sophisticated exploration of the interactions between and among technology and creative inputs. This flexible framework is intended to help researchers and practitioners better understand and support hybrid creativity in GenAI-enhanced environments by recognizing the synergistic, catalytic, and frictional dynamics shaping human–machine interactions, and by illuminating how these interactions reshape the conditions of what can be imagined, expressed, and made creatively possible.