It’s time for an unexpected but important test. For an experiment that raises big questions about the future of creativity, of what makes us human, of education.
Challenge yourself and your intuition! 15 pictures drawn by children aged 3 to 10, and 15 generated by artificial intelligence. If you can tell them apart, prizes await!
Responses are open until July 1, and the survey won’t take you more than 10 minutes. For each of the 30 images, all you need to do is guess whether it was drawn by a child or generated by AI, and also rate the technique and imagination in the first 10. You can answer just some of the questions, too. The survey is open to children as well! We’ll see whether they do better than adults at spotting the difference.
The five people with the most correct answers will receive a book as a prize.
Why does the result matter?
She is a doctoral student at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, researching AI and creativity, and the experiment was her idea (and if you have an idea for the next Digital Stories piece, this is the place).
After I showed on Digital Stories how a generated social media profile can reach 85,000 people without anyone noticing that something is off;
After 1,800 people took part in a test of whether we can tell generated images and texts apart, and the result came close to pure guesswork;
After generated poems were not merely admitted to two poetry competitions in a row but chosen among the best, it is time for the next big question from Digital Stories.
AI already creates content we cannot tell from our own. But can we hand it creativity itself, the primal spark that children’s drawings reveal?
The result matters, and I am wholeheartedly grateful to everyone who takes this test and to everyone who helps it reach more people.
