Does artificial creativity require artificial consciousness?
AI & SOCIETY May 1, 2026 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1007/s00146-026-02887-0 via Springer Nature
Summary
AI has shown notable originality in art, science, and gaming, but whether it is truly creative depends on the role of consciousness. Human creativity typically involves conscious experience, but the argument that consciousness is generally necessary for creativity is not compelling. However, for projects with aesthetic goals, consciousness is required because aesthetic experience is needed for such creativity. Without consciousness, AI cannot have aesthetic experience and thus cannot engage in aesthetic creative projects.
Study at a glance
| Design | philosophical argument |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Consciousness is not generally necessary for creativity, but it is required for creativity in projects with aesthetic goals. |
Abstract
AI has displayed notable originality across the worlds of art, science and gaming. But is it right to say that such machines are creative? This question is bound up with other challenging questions about the capacities of artificial systems. Human creativity typically involves some conscious experience of the creative project. If consciousness is necessary for creativity, then a case could be made that these (presumably) unconscious machines are not really creative. I argue that there is no compelling case for thinking that consciousness is generally necessary for creativity. However, lessons learned from this discussion suggest that a more localised claim about aesthetic creativity has greater promise. I propose that consciousness is required for creativity in projects with aesthetic goals. If an AI lacks consciousness, then it is incapable of aesthetic experience, and without aesthetic experience, it cannot engage in aesthetic creative projects.