Creativity in the Age of AI: A Critical Perspective Inspired by Mark A. Runco
Abstract
This manuscript presents a review of the article “AI can only produce artificial creativity” by Mark A. Runco (2023), published in Psychology Today. We analyze its main contributions to distinguishing human creativity from that generated by artificial intelligence platforms, and we reflect on its implications for advertising research. The argument is made that creativity is inherently human and, therefore, cannot be replaced by algorithmic processes. In this regard, the conceptual limitations of equating outputs produced by artificial intelligence with genuinely creative actions in academic research are critically examined.
Keywords
Creativity, artificial intelligence, advertising creativityReferences
Amabile, Teresa M. (1996). Creativity in Context. Westview Press.
Boden, Margaret A. (2004). The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. HarperCollins.
Dillon, Robert. (1975). Advertising creativity: Some neglected dimensions. Journal of Advertising, 4(3), 25–31.
Nyilasy, Gergely, Canniford, Robin, & Kreshel, Peggy J. (2013). Ad agency professionals’ mental representations of advertising creativity. Psychology & Marketing, 30(6), 465–482.
Reid, Leonard N., & Rotfeld, Herbert Jack. (1976). How advertising agencies use research. Journal of Advertising Research, 16(5), 33–37.
Rhodes, Mel. (1961). An analysis of creativity. The Phi Delta Kappan, 42(7), 305–310.
Sawyer, R. Keith. (2003). Emergence in creativity: The spontaneous emergence of novel structure. In R. Keith Sawyer et al. (Eds.), Creativity and Development (pp. 279–306). Oxford University Press.
Sawyer, R. Keith. (2012). Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Sternberg, Robert J., & Lubart, Todd I. (1999). The concept of creativity: Prospects and paradigms. In Robert J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of creativity (pp. 3–15). Cambridge University Press.

Published
How to Cite
Downloads
Copyright (c) 2025 Sarai Meléndez Rodríguez

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.