Washington, D.C., USA – A recent study conducted on meme creation has revealed some interesting findings about the impact of AI models on the humor, creativity, and shareability of memes. Contrary to popular belief, the study found that memes created entirely by AI models scored higher on average in these metrics compared to those created by humans alone or in collaboration with AI.
The study used pre-existing meme templates and either GPT-4o or human participants to generate captions for the memes. When the memes were evaluated by crowdsourced participants, the AI-generated memes consistently scored higher in humor, creativity, and shareability. Shareability, in this context, refers to a meme’s potential to be widely circulated, influenced by factors such as humor, relatability, and relevance to current cultural topics.
While AI models produced memes that were broadly appealing, the study also revealed that when it came to individual examples, humans created the funniest memes, and human-AI collaborations produced the most creative and shareable ones. This suggests that while AI may excel in generating memes with broad appeal, human creativity still plays a significant role in creating exceptional and unique examples.
Participants who used AI assistance in meme creation reported generating significantly more ideas and found the process to be easier and require less effort. Despite this increased productivity, memes created through human-AI collaboration did not score higher on average than memes created by humans alone. This raises questions about the balance between AI assistance and human creativity in creative tasks.
Interestingly, participants who used AI assistance reported feeling slightly less ownership over their creations, which impacted their creative motivation and satisfaction. This highlights the importance of considering the role of AI in creative tasks and how it may influence the creative process. As the study suggests, finding the right balance between AI assistance and human creativity is crucial for those looking to incorporate AI into their creative endeavors.