Exploring How Generative AI Reshapes Artistic Creativity

ABSTRACT This article presents an exploratory study on creativity, grounded in the premise that technologies enable individuals to externalize cognitive abilities, emotions, intentions, and actions. As both catalysts and outcomes of creative activity, technologies also serve as mediums for learning, artistic production, and communication. The qualitative study investigates how the creative process evolves in response to shifting tools, with a particular focus on the generative AI platform Midjourney. Drawing on interviews and small‐scale image production, it explores human–computer collaboration in the arts through the experiences of two artists and Art Therapy students at Université Paris Cité. The findings raise important questions about the central role of human agency at both the initial (preparation) and final (verification) stages of the creative process, while suggesting that AI may exert greater influence during the intermediate phases—Incubation and illumination. They also indicate that the potential of generative AI to foster creativity depends on a constellation of individual and contextual factors, which may either support or hinder its contribution to the creative process.