Exploring Human‐LLM Collaboration for Creativity Through the Lens of Concepts

ABSTRACT

We conducted a theoretical exploration into how human‐LLM collaboration can facilitate the emergence of creativity through the lens of concepts —a notion that is central in the philosophical discussions regarding human knowledge creation. Kant considers concepts to be an epistemological tool that transforms people's perceptual, intuitive experiences into knowledge, while Hegel further postulates that concepts have a broader, ontological meaning: through concepts, individuals' experiences are socialized to a collective level, becoming part of the external world which, in turn, can be experienced and learned by others. Specifically, we first reviewed the philosophical discussions revolving around concepts and discussed how creativity is reflected in and can be facilitated through concept generation. We then reviewed the development of artificial intelligence and mapped it onto the development of human intelligence. We identified the commonalities and unique strengths of humans (providing drive to start and constraints to stop based on human embodiment) and artificial intelligence (carrying out extensive exploration of new concepts to supply potential options for reaching a creative goal). Based on these insights, we proposed a hybrid cycle of concept generation as a general framework or working approach to achieve human‐AI creativity —a form of creativity that humans alone cannot reach.