A Science-based Guide to Thinking Creatively—With LLMs

Taste—in books, music, clothing, people—is notoriously hard to define without resorting to a string of examples. I find it hard to put words to the kind of books I like to read, but I can tell you that I enjoy Vladimir Nabokov , David Sedaris , and Jon Krakauer —three wildly different writers. An LLM, however, detected underlying patterns across th

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Exploratory and transformational creativity, on the other hand, often require deep familiarity with a conceptual space. Here, LLMs save time by acting as intelligent research assistants. Tools like OpenAI’s deep research can help you get a clearer sense of the landscape you’re working within, as well as a stronger foundation from which to push its ... See more

One of the most practical ways LLMs can support creativity is by dramatically shortening feedback loops. For example, it reduces the time I take to come up with a good analogy (combinatorial creativity) because I can prompt it to come up with, say, 20 examples of metaphors that describe the concept I want to express. From there I can identify the o... See more

Great ideas come from unexpected but meaningful connections

Finding creative inspiration has always mattered, but lately, it feels more important than ever. As AI takes on routine, repetitive tasks, what stands out isn’t execution—it’s originality.

What is creativity, really?

Too many artists, scientists, and writers talk about their creative process as a blackbox—an ephemeral spark that’s difficult to explain and impossible to predict. But it’s not. Boden is one of the most influential cognitive scientists to think about creativity through a computational lens. Her work is rooted in the stud... See more