Expertise elevates AI usage: experimental evidence comparing laypeople and professional artists

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Eisenmann, Thomas F., Karjus, Andres, Sola, Mar Canet, Brinkmann, Levin, Supriyatno, Bramantyo Ibrahim, Rahwan, Iyad
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Eisenmann, Thomas F.
Karjus, Andres
Sola, Mar Canet
Brinkmann, Levin
Supriyatno, Bramantyo Ibrahim
Rahwan, Iyad
author_facet Eisenmann, Thomas F.
Karjus, Andres
Sola, Mar Canet
Brinkmann, Levin
Supriyatno, Bramantyo Ibrahim
Rahwan, Iyad
contents Generative AI's novel capacities raise questions about the future role of human expertise: does AI level the playing field between professional artists and laypeople, or does expertise enhance AI use? Do the cognitive skills experts make use of in analyzing and drawing visual art also transfer to using these new tools? This pre-registered study conducts experimental comparisons between 50 professional artists and a demographically matched sample of laypeople. Our interdisciplinary team developed two tasks involving image replication and creative image creation, assessing their copying accuracy and divergent thinking. We implemented a bespoke platform for the experiment, powered by a modern text-to-image AI. Results reveal artists produced more accurate copies and more divergent ideas than lay participants, highlighting a skill transfer of professional expertise - even to the confined space of generative AI. We also explored how well an exemplary vision-capable large language model (GPT-4o) would fare: on par in copying and slightly better on average than artists in the creative task, although never above best humans. These findings highlight the importance of integrating artistic skills with AI, suggesting a potential for collaborative synergy that could reshape creative industries and arts education.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_12374
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Expertise elevates AI usage: experimental evidence comparing laypeople and professional artists
Eisenmann, Thomas F.
Karjus, Andres
Sola, Mar Canet
Brinkmann, Levin
Supriyatno, Bramantyo Ibrahim
Rahwan, Iyad
Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
Generative AI's novel capacities raise questions about the future role of human expertise: does AI level the playing field between professional artists and laypeople, or does expertise enhance AI use? Do the cognitive skills experts make use of in analyzing and drawing visual art also transfer to using these new tools? This pre-registered study conducts experimental comparisons between 50 professional artists and a demographically matched sample of laypeople. Our interdisciplinary team developed two tasks involving image replication and creative image creation, assessing their copying accuracy and divergent thinking. We implemented a bespoke platform for the experiment, powered by a modern text-to-image AI. Results reveal artists produced more accurate copies and more divergent ideas than lay participants, highlighting a skill transfer of professional expertise - even to the confined space of generative AI. We also explored how well an exemplary vision-capable large language model (GPT-4o) would fare: on par in copying and slightly better on average than artists in the creative task, although never above best humans. These findings highlight the importance of integrating artistic skills with AI, suggesting a potential for collaborative synergy that could reshape creative industries and arts education.
title Expertise elevates AI usage: experimental evidence comparing laypeople and professional artists
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.12374