Creative Collaboration with the “Brain” of a Search Engine: Effects on Cognitive Stimulation and Evaluation Apprehension

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming part of how we do creative work. This to the extent that commonly used AI-powered systems, such as search engines, are already routinely used to support our day-to-day creative tasks. However, surprisingly little is known about how creative collaboration with the “brain” of a typical search engine compares to creative collaboration with other people. We propose that exploring this requires a cognitive and a social perspective. Firstly, the output of a search engine might influence cognitive stimulation differently than human collaborative forms, i.e. the degree to which output by another inspires more and more novel associations. Secondly, evaluation apprehension, i.e. not sharing all your ideas due to a fear of being evaluated negatively, might be reduced when collaborating with such AI-powered systems due to their limited perceived social agency. Thirdly, a user’s attitude towards AI might moderate this effect, e.g., due to fears about what such systems do with the user’s data. An experiment (n = 139) was conducted where participants were instructed to collaborate with an AI powered by a search engine, or with another person, during a divergent thinking task (in reality these collaborations were scripted). The results indicated that 1) collaborating with another person increased cognitive stimulation, 2) collaborating with the AI decreased evaluation apprehension, and 3) people’s general attitude towards AI did not moderate its effect on evaluation apprehension. Herewith, the study contributes to an emerging body of work on creative collaboration with AI.