The Myth of Originality and the Role of AI in Creativity

By Nathan Waterhouse · 2024-12-17

In the world of creativity, we often cling to this idea of pure originality—of the lone genius who crafts something new from nothing. We love the story of the artist who conjures brilliance overnight, as if by magic. But let’s be honest: that’s not how most great work happens. Whether it’s design, art, or writing, the real process involves drawing on what’s come before—taking inspiration, experimenting, and refining until something fresh emerges.

This tension becomes especially clear with AI. For a lot of people, saying you used AI in your creative process feels like admitting some sort of betrayal. It can trigger awkward questions like, “Did you actually make this?” or “How much of this is really yours?” Those doubts come from a place where our notions of originality, effort, and credibility all get tangled up. As Jeremy Utley points out, when leaders reinforce these hesitations, they’re pushing creative teams further into doubt rather than helping them break free of it.

It’s easy to see why AI might feel taboo. In disciplines that value authenticity, AI can look like a cheat code—a quick fix that somehow reduces the value of the final product. But does it really?

I think this is perhaps more of an issue in arts-based fields as it touches on something more personal: it challenges our notions of effort, talent, and authorship. If you use AI to help with writing, designing, or generating new ideas, you might worry that people will think less of you. When I was at art school, I remember our design crits, and how our ideas would be judged against how original our thinking was, so it’s no surprise that there’s such a debate in the art and design world.

Maybe people fear that the output is less “authentic” or not entirely “human.” Strangely, we don’t question competence in other areas just because someone used a tool—no one doubts your spreadsheet skills because you used Excel, or your spelling if you used a spell checker (in fact it’s expected). But AI is different. It pokes at deeper anxieties about what it means to be talented, to put in genuine effort, and to claim authorship of an idea.

Years ago, I helped create something called OpenIDEO.com—taking IDEO’s design thinking process and putting it online for everyone to contribute to massive social issues like climate change, affordable education, and healthy eating. It was very popular externally, but when we alpha-launched internally, there was strong resistance from some. It turned out the ones who resisted it the most seemed to be more traditional designers who felt threatened by the idea that anyone could contribute to the design process. Some of the resistance I hear from designers today in relation to AI reminds me a bit of that same moment.

Reframing Creativity – Seeing It as a Collaborative Process

Instead of viewing AI as a threat, what if we treated it like a natural part of our creative ecosystem? Designers already thrive on process—on sketching, mocking up, iterating, and refining ideas. AI doesn’t displace this process; it just slots into it, like adding a new brush to your painting toolkit or another lens to your camera bag.

This isn’t some alien concept. Think about music: hip-hop producers sample and remix existing tracks all the time, creating something fresh out of the old—just check out this list of the top ten most sampled tunes—the number one has been sampled over 1,000 times! Or consider film genres like homage or pastiche, which openly celebrate their influences. Fashion designers experiment with AI-driven pattern generation to push their collections into unexpected territories, and architects explore AI-based generative design to discover structures that would be difficult to conceive through manual drafting alone. These aren’t seen as shortcuts; they’re recognised as legitimate creative techniques. They show that building on what exists can lead to breakthroughs.

I'm aware I'm taking an optimistic perspective here, and there are real risks and fears that need to be addressed. It’s also important to acknowledge the risks of over-reliance on AI – despite being a passionate explorer of AI, I'm hyper-aware of the things I might be losing – what would I do if I lost access to all these amazing tools tomorrow? Could we lose touch with uniquely human creativity, or become too dependent on AI’s assistance to innovate independently? Striking the right balance requires us to remain critical of how we integrate these tools into our processes – and to ensure that we are consciously evolving and upgrading our innately human skills as we improve our outputs (check out Farnham Street and Shane Parish’s work as an example of consciously upgrading your thinking).

What AI Forces Us to Ask Ourselves

AI doesn’t just sit on the sidelines; it plays at a cognitive level, shaping how we think and guiding us in fresh directions. But with that power comes some tricky questions. Will AI push us towards a kind of creative sameness as everyone taps into the same datasets? (you must watch Advait S. video and read his article here if you’re interested in this and more). Could it carry hidden biases that quietly steer our ideas down certain paths? It’s these uncertainties that make things feel a bit raw and personal. Using AI in our creative flow forces us to grapple with tough, fundamental questions:

These aren’t easy questions, but they matter. They remind us that creativity has never been about isolation—it’s always been a conversation between influences, from the people and cultures around us to the technologies we invent.

A Call for Transparency

So how do we learn to feel at ease with AI as a creative partner? Let’s start by being open about it. Rather than hiding the fact we’ve used AI, we can highlight it as part of the story behind our work. Show how AI helped spark an idea, how you pushed back against its suggestions, or how it nudged you into unexpected territory. If we do that, we shift the conversation from “Was this really you?” to “How did AI help you get here?” Of course, there’s a delicate balance. Relying too heavily on AI might raise questions about authenticity and who really ‘owns’ the final piece. But that’s exactly why transparency and dialogue matter, helping us define authorship and credibility in this evolving landscape.

Learning from Other Disciplines

In science, credibility comes from acknowledging your sources—everyone knows breakthroughs don’t appear out of thin air. They rest on the giants and the work that’s come before. Maybe we should apply the same thinking to creative work. After all, creativity doesn’t sprout in a vacuum. It thrives on existing ideas, cultural touchstones, and the blend of what’s come before. AI is just the latest tool in that mix. Accepting it doesn’t make us less human—it might just open up possibilities we haven’t considered yet.

Owning Your AI Journey

Next time you use AI in your process, don’t tuck it away like a guilty secret. Own it. Celebrate the route you took, the interplay between human intuition and machine suggestion. At the same time, we need to keep asking ourselves: when do these tools help us level up, and when do they start to overshadow the very human spark we value so much? How do we maintain that soulful core that makes our creations meaningful? By staying aware and open-minded, we can welcome AI as a new creative partner without losing sight of the human element at the heart of it all. I’d love to know—how are you navigating AI’s role in your own creativity, and what challenges or opportunities has it revealed for you?