GPT-4 story help boosts novelty 8.1% but homogenizes writing, study finds
lmoroney · x · 2026-10-13
A Science Advances study by Anil Doshi and Oliver Hauser had 293 people write eight-sentence stories; some could request up to five three-sentence starting ideas from GPT-4. 600 blind readers then rated the results. With up to five ideas, novelty rose 8.1%, with the biggest gains for writers who had scored lowest on a creativity pre-test. However, AI-assisted stories were more similar to one another and converged toward the model's suggestions—while writers' self-ratings showed no difference, meaning they didn't notice the homogenization.
Nkechi First's takeaway habit: decide before you ask—write your own idea down first, treat AI suggestions as something to push against, and add one detail from your own life that a model would never include.
Related event: GPT-4 Boosts Story Novelty but Makes Writing More Homogeneous(2 posts)→
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