Only humans can truly be creative. No piece of technology can ever replace human ingenuity and originality. Right? After all, programs like ChatGPT can only write subject lines, campaign copy, and code emails based on data and information that already exists.
However, if you’re one of the many people who’s played around with OpenAI’s ChatGPT in recent months, you may be starting to wonder how special all of us so-called “creative types” actually are.
Maybe you asked it to come up with subject lines or landing page copy and wondered, “How come I didn’t think of that?” As AI solutions like ChatGPT, Google Bard, and other newcomers work out the kinks and continue blowing our minds, it’s worth questioning how these tools can be used and what it means for the future of email marketing.
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s make sure we’re on the same page concerning the definition of creativity.
One of the most common ways you’ll hear creativity explained may sound something like this:
Creativity is the ability to combine two or more seemingly disparate concepts to come up with a new idea or solution to a problem.
So, for example, you could take something you learned when you were a kid in Little League, combine it with something you learned at a marketing conference, and use them both to come up with a spring email campaign idea. It’s new and creative because it’s different. But your idea was born from information that already existed.
You’ve probably heard of the phrase, “There is nothing new under the sun.” That comes from the Old Testament (Ecclesiastes 1:9), which means it’s some pretty ancient wisdom. The English writer William Ralph Inge once called originality, “undetected plagiarism.”
Even the incredibly creative Mark Twain wrote a letter to Hellen Keller explaining that “... all ideas are secondhand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources...”
Maybe you see where I’m going here. The way we are creative as humans isn’t much different from how AI technology like ChatGPT works. Our brains are often compared to computers, and maybe they’d be more accurately compared to AI language models. In fact, neuroscientists at MIT say research with AI technology, including GPT 3, is helping them understand how the human brain works.
We learn things and have experiences, store them in our memories, and use them as fuel for creativity. Like a piece of software, we can’t come up with things out of the blue either. It always comes from somewhere, someone, or something else. Who are we to say that AI can’t be creative if it’s basically doing the same thing?
Just like us, ChatGPT takes the data and information it has access to and uses that to answer questions or respond to prompts. Here’s what happened when I asked ChatGTP about its creative abilities:
Kasey: Can you be creative?
ChatGPT: As an artificial intelligence language model, I am not capable of creativity in the same sense as humans are. However, I can generate unique and original text based on the patterns and information I have learned from my training data.
I can help you come up with creative ideas, suggest new ways of thinking, and provide you with inspiration for your projects or creative endeavors.
It’s sort of funny how ChatGPT acts like a politician, dancing around questions like this. The response didn’t indicate it was not creative, just that it’s incapable of being creative “in the same sense as humans are.”
Instead, OpenAI wants you to view ChatGPT as a digital assistant that’s ready to provide a helping hand when you hit a creative roadblock. So, in what ways can ChatGPT act creatively?
An interesting example of ChatGPT’s creative abilities is found right on the OpenAI website. It shows you what happens when you ask the technology to explain something that doesn’t make logical sense.
Explaining creative concepts
Have you ever been asked to explain the thinking behind one of your creative ideas? Sometimes, when you ask ChatGPT to come up with suggestions, it will tell you why the idea might work. Here’s an example from when I asked it for business name ideas:
Kasey: Give me five ideas for the name of a social media service that has senior citizens as its target audience. Don't use any offensive terms. Instead, try to make it sound like something fun from the 1950s or 1960s.
ChatGPT: Sure, here are five name ideas for a social media service targeting senior citizens:
The Good Ole' Days - this name invokes nostalgia and the idea of reminiscing about the past with friends and family.
The Senior Circuit - this name has a fun, retro feel, playing off the idea of seniors being "in the loop" and connected to their peers.
Golden Memories - this name has a warm and inviting connotation, emphasizing the idea of cherishing memories and sharing them with others.
Timeless Ties - this name evokes a sense of connection and community, suggesting that seniors can still form meaningful relationships and bonds.
Silver Screen Social - this name has a playful feel, referencing the "silver screen" of classic Hollywood movies and emphasizing the social aspect of the platform.
Not all these ideas are winners, that’s for sure. Still, ChatGPT came up with the suggestions in a matter of seconds. No two-hour brainstorming meeting required. But the explanations are what impressed me. They’re just as good as anything I’ve heard in any meeting with a creative agency.
Here’s an advantage ChatGPT has over human creativity: It doesn’t get defensive about its ideas at all. If you don’t like them, ask for edits and you’ll get them. No hurt feelings. But you might get an apology.
Following up on the prompt about a social site for seniors, I asked ChatGPT to shorten its suggestions to be snappier, one-word brand names.
