Study Finds Humans Outshine AI in Visual Creativity

Visual Creativity Human Creativity Still Surpasses AI

2026-03-28 Source: University of Barcelona 3 min Reading Time

Related Vendors

DÜPERTHAL Sicherheitstechnik GmbH & Co. KG

Xylem Analytics Germany Sales GmbH & Co. KG

Human imagination still outperforms artificial intelligence when it comes to genuine visual creativity. A new study led by the University of Barcelona found that even advanced image-generating AI systems lag far behind both artists and non-artists in producing truly original and compelling images, especially when human guidance is removed.

Examples of drawings from each category, with the scores they received from humans, independent AI and the human-guided AI.(Source: Advanced Science) — Examples of drawings from each category, with the scores they received from humans, independent AI and the human-guided AI.
(Source: Advanced Science)

New research confirms it: the creativity of artificial intelligence (AI) is a myth. Although current generative AI models may appear to be autonomous creative agents, analysing their imaginative process step by step reveals that their creative abilities are not genuine. This is the conclusion of a new study published in Advanced Science and led by an international team of experts from the Cognition and Brain Plasticity research group at the Institute of Neuroscience (UBneuro) of the University of Barcelona, the Institute for Biomedical Research (Idibell), the Computer Vision Centre (CVC-UAB) and the Vienna Cognitive Science Hub.

The study, focused on visual creativity and imagination, began in 2024 during a workshop organized by the Fundació Èpica — La Fura dels Baus, whose work aims to promote interdisciplinary collaborations between science, technology and art.

Gallery

On the left, an example of the visual imagination task the participants and AI models undertook: from these shapes they had to create a new image, with more or less elaborate instructions in the case of the AI. On the right, the resulting images in the four categories analysed (visual artists, non-artists, human-inspired AI and self-guided AI). The drawings are arranged in order of their creativity ratings (from 1 to 5), from lowest to highest.(Source: Advanced Science)

From left to right, Silvia Rondini, Xim Cerdá-Company, Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells, Claudia Álvarez, Olivier Penacchio and Dan Dediu.(Source: University of Barcelona)

Following this workshop, the experts devised an innovative methodology to study creativity. They prepared a visual-creative imagination task based on abstract stimuli, and compared the creative performance of an image-generation AI model, with and without human guidance, with that of two groups of people: visual artists and the general population (non-artists). To ensure the drawings were comparable, the AI model was trained using the creative productions of the human participants and was given a more or less elaborate prompt depending on whether it was evaluated with or without human guidance.

Human Productions Are More Creative

A group of people and two AI systems were responsible for assessing the degree of creativity of the drawings according to five criteria: liking (i.e. to what extent they liked the drawing), vividness, originality, aesthetics and curiosity. In all cases, the results were clear and unequivocal: the visual artists received the highest score (most creative), followed by the general population, the human-guided AI model, and, by a wide margin disadvantage, the unguided AI model.

A new Cornell study shows that AI tools like ChatGPT significantly increase scientific output — while making it harder for reviewers to distinguish high-quality research from well-written but low-value papers. (Source: free licensed)

“Although the AI model was trained with the creative productions of human participants, it showed a poor performance in the production of creative images; in fact, it did even worse when it was deprived of human assistance,” explains expert Xim Cerdá-Company, a researcher at Idibell and the CVC-UAB and co-leader of the study.

Studying Creativity as a Process, Not Just for Results

For the research team, the study’s contribution to both AI and cognitive science is manifold. On the one hand, it highlights the need to employ a diverse range of measures and models when investigating a process as complex and multifaceted as creativity. “Currently, AI creativity is valued almost exclusively through verbal creativity tasks, skewing the results and even presenting AI as a creative agent. With a different approach, and by directly assessing the imaginative process from ideation to execution, we have shown that this is not true,” continues Cerdá-Company. “Creativity must be studied as a process, not just focused on its results,” he adds.

On the other hand, the team highlights that, as human guidance was removed from the AI models, creativity decreased significantly. “Current generative AI models are still far from replicating independent creative processes,” states Professor Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells, co-leader of the study and head of the Cognition and Brain Plasticity research group at the UB, Idibell and UBneuro. This highlights the fundamental need for human intervention at multiple stages of the AI models’ creative process, from training to idea generation.

Subscribe to the newsletter now

Don't Miss out on Our Best Content

Business E-mail

Please enter a valid mailadress.

By clicking on „Subscribe to Newsletter“ I agree to the processing and use of my data according to the consent form (please expand for details) and accept the Terms of Use. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy. The consent declaration relates, among other things, to the sending of editorial newsletters by email and to data matching for marketing purposes with selected advertising partners (e.g., LinkedIn, Google, Meta)

Date: 08.12.2025

Naturally, we always handle your personal data responsibly. Any personal data we receive from you is processed in accordance with applicable data protection legislation. For detailed information please see our privacy policy.

Consent to the use of data for promotional purposes

I hereby consent to Vogel Communications Group GmbH & Co. KG, Max-Planck-Str. 7-9, 97082 Würzburg including any affiliated companies according to §§ 15 et seq. AktG (hereafter: Vogel Communications Group) using my e-mail address to send editorial newsletters. A list of all affiliated companies can be found here

Newsletter content may include all products and services of any companies mentioned above, including for example specialist journals and books, events and fairs as well as event-related products and services, print and digital media offers and services such as additional (editorial) newsletters, raffles, lead campaigns, market research both online and offline, specialist webportals and e-learning offers. In case my personal telephone number has also been collected, it may be used for offers of aforementioned products, for services of the companies mentioned above, and market research purposes.

Additionally, my consent also includes the processing of my email address and telephone number for data matching for marketing purposes with select advertising partners such as LinkedIn, Google, and Meta. For this, Vogel Communications Group may transmit said data in hashed form to the advertising partners who then use said data to determine whether I am also a member of the mentioned advertising partner portals. Vogel Communications Group uses this feature for the purposes of re-targeting (up-selling, cross-selling, and customer loyalty), generating so-called look-alike audiences for acquisition of new customers, and as basis for exclusion for on-going advertising campaigns. Further information can be found in section “data matching for marketing purposes”.

In case I access protected data on Internet portals of Vogel Communications Group including any affiliated companies according to §§ 15 et seq. AktG, I need to provide further data in order to register for the access to such content. In return for this free access to editorial content, my data may be used in accordance with this consent for the purposes stated here. This does not apply to data matching for marketing purposes.

Right of revocation

I understand that I can revoke my consent at will. My revocation does not change the lawfulness of data processing that was conducted based on my consent leading up to my revocation. One option to declare my revocation is to use the contact form found at https://contact.vogel.de. In case I no longer wish to receive certain newsletters, I have subscribed to, I can also click on the unsubscribe link included at the end of a newsletter. Further information regarding my right of revocation and the implementation of it as well as the consequences of my revocation can be found in the data protection declaration, section editorial newsletter.

“The technical image-generation AI abilities cannot be assessed in isolation. The creative process must be explored in its multiple components. In doing so, it becomes clear that AI depends directly on our intervention,” concludes Professor Rodríguez-Fornells, member of the Faculty of Psychology and an Icrea researcher.

Professor Dan Dediu, from the Faculty of Philology and Communication and the Institute of Complex Systems (Ubics) at the UB, also took part in the study.

Original Article: Stable Diffusion Models Reveal a Persisting Human–AI Gap in Visual Creativity; Advanced Science; DOI:10.1002/advs.202524142

(ID:50800884)