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Why AI Starves Without Human Creativity: Measuring and Renewing the Epistemic Commons

Author

Listed:
  • Tomasz Kopczewski

    (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences)

  • Tomasz Potocki

    (University of Rzeszów, Faculty of Economics and Finance)

  • Norbert Jaworski

    (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences)

  • Jan Lisicki

    (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences)

  • Kostiantyn Okhrimenko

    (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences)

Abstract

Generative AI appears to the user as one intelligence, although its competence draws on traces left by populations. We call the machine Shannon’s demon. It can starve amid an abundance of text: when human effort declines and outputs of the same models fill the corpus, volume grows while variety and independence contract. One million observations whose errors correlate at 0.5 give the precision of two independent ones. Five users who ask the same model for the strongest objection each receive a Socratic conversation, and the population receives one new centre. Every answer carries two bills: the provider meters the computation; the effect on the knowledge that feeds future answers stays unpriced. The paper sets out what must be measured to say that the demon is starving, how a Socratic operator works for a population, and a deposit-funded pool with delayed rewards and plural validation that pays for the difference.

Suggested Citation

  • Tomasz Kopczewski & Tomasz Potocki & Norbert Jaworski & Jan Lisicki & Kostiantyn Okhrimenko, 2026. "Why AI Starves Without Human Creativity: Measuring and Renewing the Epistemic Commons," Working Papers 2026-42, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    • Handle: RePEc:war:wpaper:2026-42
    DOI: 10.33138/2957-0506.2026.42.536
    Note: First version, 2026
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software

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