Rethinking literary creativity in the digital age: a comparative study of human versus AI playwriting

Abstract This paper contends that, in the digital era, the creation of art is no longer an endeavor exclusively pursued by humans to achieve a creative product. Over the past decade, computer-generated theater has emerged and progressed significantly through successive projects. This advancement has...

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Main Authors: Silvia Elias, Bunder Sebail Alshammari, Khaled Nasser Alfraidi, Khaled Mostafa Karam
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Springer Nature 2025-05-01
Series:Humanities & Social Sciences Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-04999-2
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author Silvia Elias
Bunder Sebail Alshammari
Khaled Nasser Alfraidi
Khaled Mostafa Karam
author_facet Silvia Elias
Bunder Sebail Alshammari
Khaled Nasser Alfraidi
Khaled Mostafa Karam
author_sort Silvia Elias
collection DOAJ
description Abstract This paper contends that, in the digital era, the creation of art is no longer an endeavor exclusively pursued by humans to achieve a creative product. Over the past decade, computer-generated theater has emerged and progressed significantly through successive projects. This advancement has incited debate about whether these AI-generated works possess literary merit and originality comparable to Human-authored texts. Therefore, this interdisciplinary study aims to draw a comparison between an AI-generated play and a human-authored play in terms of originality, fluency, flexibility, and effectiveness. It utilizes Computational methods and NLP tools to process the two plays, analyze both content and language, and derive quantitative measures that support the creativity assessment of the two plays. The results of content and computational analysis indicate that the human-generated play has higher scores in all indexes of creativity. However, the results also suggest that the AI-generated play features significant creativity potential close in assessment to the human proficiency in several indexes. Thus, AI is capable of creative literary products, though it is not as masterful as those produced by creative humans.
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series Humanities & Social Sciences Communications
spelling doaj-art-9c6bc79b65d34845b6f615e98085206e2025-08-20T03:48:19ZengSpringer NatureHumanities & Social Sciences Communications2662-99922025-05-0112111110.1057/s41599-025-04999-2Rethinking literary creativity in the digital age: a comparative study of human versus AI playwritingSilvia Elias0Bunder Sebail Alshammari1Khaled Nasser Alfraidi2Khaled Mostafa Karam3Assistant Professor of American Drama, Faculty of Languages and Translation, Pharos UniversityAssistant Professor of Linguistics, College of Arts and Letters, University of HailAssistant Professor of Literature and Criticism, College of Arts and Letters, University of HailAssociate Professor of English Literature, Department Chair, Faculty of Arts, Suez UniversityAbstract This paper contends that, in the digital era, the creation of art is no longer an endeavor exclusively pursued by humans to achieve a creative product. Over the past decade, computer-generated theater has emerged and progressed significantly through successive projects. This advancement has incited debate about whether these AI-generated works possess literary merit and originality comparable to Human-authored texts. Therefore, this interdisciplinary study aims to draw a comparison between an AI-generated play and a human-authored play in terms of originality, fluency, flexibility, and effectiveness. It utilizes Computational methods and NLP tools to process the two plays, analyze both content and language, and derive quantitative measures that support the creativity assessment of the two plays. The results of content and computational analysis indicate that the human-generated play has higher scores in all indexes of creativity. However, the results also suggest that the AI-generated play features significant creativity potential close in assessment to the human proficiency in several indexes. Thus, AI is capable of creative literary products, though it is not as masterful as those produced by creative humans.https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-04999-2
spellingShingle Silvia Elias
Bunder Sebail Alshammari
Khaled Nasser Alfraidi
Khaled Mostafa Karam
Rethinking literary creativity in the digital age: a comparative study of human versus AI playwriting
Humanities & Social Sciences Communications
title Rethinking literary creativity in the digital age: a comparative study of human versus AI playwriting
title_full Rethinking literary creativity in the digital age: a comparative study of human versus AI playwriting
title_fullStr Rethinking literary creativity in the digital age: a comparative study of human versus AI playwriting
title_full_unstemmed Rethinking literary creativity in the digital age: a comparative study of human versus AI playwriting
title_short Rethinking literary creativity in the digital age: a comparative study of human versus AI playwriting
title_sort rethinking literary creativity in the digital age a comparative study of human versus ai playwriting
url https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-04999-2
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