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Evaluating creative work with artificial intelligence: Evidence from constrained innovation tasks

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  • Addis, Valerio Fedele
  • Attanasi, Giuseppe
  • Di Bartolomeo, Giovanni
  • Mariella, Michele
  • Peruzzi, Valentina

Abstract

We study whether a large language model can reliably evaluate human creativity in constrained, innovation-like tasks. Using expert-generated creative outputs from a validated experiment with workers in cultural and creative industries, we embed ChatGPT as an evaluator and benchmark its assessments against expert human judgments obtained through the Consensual Assessment Technique. Study 1 supports AI reliability by showing that AI-based creativity evaluations exhibit internal consistency comparable to that of expert judges across repeated and independent runs, even under conservative scenarios. Replacing a human judge with an AI evaluator does not reduce inter-rater reliability across drawing, mathematical, and verbal tasks. Beyond reliability, AI evaluations display three additional features that are difficult to achieve with human-only panels: lower evaluative variability, systematically higher scores consistent with a potentially more inclusive evaluative stance, and task-independence of evaluative standards. Study 2 further supports task-independence by showing that AI evaluations are structured along fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration, with dimension weights that adapt to task-specific constraints.

Suggested Citation

  • Addis, Valerio Fedele & Attanasi, Giuseppe & Di Bartolomeo, Giovanni & Mariella, Michele & Peruzzi, Valentina, 2026. "Evaluating creative work with artificial intelligence: Evidence from constrained innovation tasks," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:techno:v:155:y:2026:i:c:s0166497226001069
    DOI: 10.1016/j.technovation.2026.103571
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    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior

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