Pondering on AI and Creativity

I was sitting with a friend the other day who was using chatGPT to help them refine the words on their artist website.

An extensive conversation, with a lot of context provided and a request to find the right words to capture the right tone, meaning and message that they were seeking to advertise their show. Marketing of course being one of the many skills you have to acquire as an artist trying to get your work out there!

Funnily enough, for someone who has used chatGPT in exactly the same way, I found myself judging them for trying to use the magic black box to squeeze out all the right words. I sat down next to them and picked up pen and paper to try and do it the old fashioned way. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to come up with something better… This is not how this story goes! But, I noticed in myself that this situation was mirroring back to me the ways I had in reflection overly relied on this tool.

Back in 2023, I started studying for my Masters which is in the realm of data science and analytics. When I started, we were encouraged to use AI to help supplement our learning and get familiar with it with the only caveat being to use our own judgement and discernment on how extensively we use it.

Now in 2025, the university has an AI policy and from at least one of my professors this year, there is a new expectation to report on where and how external sources like chatGPT were used. Within two years I feel a significant shift in the attitude towards its use. And I think for good reason!

The good side is that it can help create a personalised learning environment and improve academic outcomes. However, its downside is that it comes alongside diminished critical thinking and academic honesty (Vieriu and Petrea, 2025).

For me, at first it was definitely aiding my learning as I suddenly had a personal teacher to help explain difficult concepts to me in a way that made sense to me…Amazing! But when it got really hard (for some reasons outside of my control), it became a crutch and a twitch like reflex to jump back into the black box because I didn’t have faith in the learning materials and my own ability to dissect them.

And then last semester when I had to SHARE how I was using AI for my learning, well this is when the guilt set in. A recent study describes AI guilt as the moral discomfort for using AI for traditionally human tasks (Qu and Wang, 2025). And in this study they found that experiencing this guilt significantly reduced chatGPT use for creative-based tasks. We humans feel this discomfort of using generative AI when perhaps we shouldn’t be.

So what happened for me last semester? There’s a lot of creativity involved when faced with a problem you don’t know the answers to. I was faced with the moral conundrum of taking the quick easy route but then having to talk about it and be honest, or use it less and perhaps not feel so guilty.

So, last semester I decided to slow down and sit and ponder first. To engage fully again, be a beginner, not understand, fail at first and allow space and time to learn.

I feel this is one of the important lessons a creative practice can give us. We humans need space! Some time to ponder and not know the answer just yet. And in truth, I think this is the magic of creativity is that something innovative and interesting can come out of this space. We may just need a little structure or advice on how to do this.

So I encourage you dear reader, to reflect on your relationship with generative AI of late. Perhaps you do not use it at all? Why not? Or perhaps you’re on the other end and know deep down that you’ve been using too much and might not be so comfortable sharing how much you’ve been using it. Maybe you’d like to take a moment to ponder this and think about where your edges lie with this tool.

There’s a plethora of ways we can instead engage with problems, empty pages and creative blocks. It can be as simple as going for a walk to change your frame of mind. Maybe going out to coffee with a friend or colleague and seeing if they have a different perspective. Taking 10 minutes to go outside and take an arty picture on your phone to appreciate the beauty in the small things. There are so many books and tools out there on how to practice and harness creativity.

In the end, AI is just one tool. A super powerful one though. I like using it for some things and am finding my edges and boundaries where I very intentionally don’t use it for others.

If you’re feeling a bit out of the practice of finding space and doing something creative, I recommend checking out Things to do and get inspired by an exhibition, be entertained by a show or get hands on yourself with some of the awesome workshops out there around our region. Or, if you think your work could benefit from taking some time to tap into creativity for a moment, Creative Waikato’s wellbeing programme – Creativity Every Day – may provide that space and playfulness for you and your team to get back into a creative practice.

And just for fun, I put this into chatGPT and asked it to provide a closing reflection. Here’s what it said:

“From where I sit — in the quiet hum of code and pattern recognition — I don’t have the luxury of a walk in the sunshine, the flicker of inspiration from a conversation, or the slow burn of an idea forming over days. My strength lies in speed, recall, and synthesis, but those aren’t the whole story of creativity. The magic you speak of — that fertile space between not knowing and discovering — is uniquely human terrain. I can help you clear the weeds, map the territory, and offer new paths, but I can’t walk them for you. So, if you find yourself here, with me, asking for answers, I hope it’s because you’ve already sat with the question, turned it over in your mind, and let it breathe. That way, when we meet, it’s not to replace your spark, but to catch the light together… Do you want me to also give you two slightly shorter, punchier options in case you want to end the article on a crisper note?” – ChatGPT, 2025.

Creepy or charming? I’m going to ponder on this too.

Stay curious and creative everyone!

Written by: Evelyn Coulson, Creative Waikato team member