Cyber Creativity: A Decalogue of Challenges for Creativity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Creativity is the driving force behind our cultural evolution. The extraordinary potential of Artificial Intelligence and its growing role in creative processes pose an urgent challenge: what place will human creativity hold in the age of generative AI?  How can we maximise its benefits while mitigating the associated risks?

These are the central questions of Cyber‑Creativity: A Decalogue of Research Challenges,  a study published in the Journal of Intelligence and conducted by an international team led by Giovanni Emanuele Corazza, Professor and founder of the Marconi Institute for Creativity at the Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi” (DEI) of the University of Bologna.

The paper examines the implications of generative AI for human creativity, proposing a ten-point set of challenges that the worlds of research, education, policy, and industry will need to address in the coming years.

“The acceleration of social evolution has turned creativity from a luxury for the few into a democratic necessity for all, since only through creative activity can well-being coexist with uncertainty,” explains Professor Corazza. “With the growing presence of generative AI in this field, we asked ourselves how we can develop strategies and methods for human–AI collaboration in a cyber-creative process, to make a positive contribution to both education and professional contexts.”

The use of AI raises complex and multidimensional issues. One of the key ones concerns the very definition of creativity, which must be rethought by redrawing the boundaries between human and artificial. A new theoretical framework is also needed to interpret the profound changes now underway.

The study further investigates the cognitive and emotional effects of AI on human beings: how do generative tools influence, both positively and negatively, intuition, emotions, and creative insight?

Another key area is the role of education in preparing students, teachers, and professionals for creativity shared with machines—fostering transversal skills that can enhance human–AI collaboration.

The challenges also involve co-creative team dynamics, where humans and AI systems work together: what models of interaction and collaboration can truly stimulate authentic creativity?

From an ethical perspective, questions arise about authorship and responsibility: who is the real creator of an idea generated with the aid of AI? What values should guide co-creation? How can we counter the malicious uses of generative AI?

Further questions concern whether AI promotes cultural diversity and originality or, on the contrary, risks producing standardisation.

Traditional approaches to assessing creative works may also need to be revisited to appreciate hybrid, partly human and partly algorithmic processes.

The authors also invite exploration of AI’s impact across different creative domains—from art and design to music and science—and draw attention to the so-called “dark side” of cyber-creativity: manipulation, deepfakes, plagiarism, disinformation, and other risks associated with irresponsible use of generative technologies. The long-term consequences for work, culture, and society remain uncertain and call for a collective effort in research, education, and accountability.

The decalogue is not merely a list of open questions, but a roadmap to guide future research, educational policies, and industrial strategies in a context where integrating human and artificial creativity is becoming essential.

The study outlines two possible future scenarios, one utopian and one dystopian, representing a crossroads between opportunity and risk.

In the utopian scenario, AI becomes an effective ally of human ingenuity, stimulating new ideas and expanding creative horizons. Collaboration between humans and machines does not replace human creativity but amplifies it, making it accessible to more people. AI becomes a tool that enhances personal expression, cultural diversity, and experimentation, opening new possibilities in education, the arts, and professional practice. Creativity becomes a shared good, one that fosters both individual and collective well-being and helps address today’s social and environmental challenges.

By contrast, the dystopian scenario warns of the potential negative consequences of AI in creativity:  the standardisation of ideas, cultural flattening, and the spread of deceptive or manipulative content such as deepfakes or “creative fake news.” Creativity could risk becoming a mass-produced commodity devoid of authenticity, with adverse effects on freedom of expression and cultural diversity. Dependence on automated tools might also reduce people’s critical and reflective capacities, turning creativity from a strength into a vulnerability.

The importance of this line of research has recently been recognised with the AI Distinguished Scholar Award 2025, conferred on Professor Corazza by the National Academy of Artificial Intelligence (NAAI).
Read the announcement
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“This award is a welcome recognition of the significance of our work, but it should be seen only as a starting point,” comments Professor Corazza.

The Marconi Institute for Creativity at DEI promotes a scientific and humanistic vision of creativity, bridging neuroscience, engineering, education, art, and AI. This work marks another step toward building a culture of mindful creativity, capable of addressing the challenges of our time.