Human Experts Outperform Technology in Creative Markets

Technological advances have enabled machines to displace humans both in physical tasks and in higher-skilled fields that require extensive knowledge or training. Recently, there has been an outpour contending that advances in artificial intelligence mean technology can outperform human creative experts. We explore whether artificial intelligence outperforms humans in domains that depend upon the spark of creativity. Two logo design studies and seven evaluation studies explore the performance of human designers as compared to artificial intelligence logo makers. Relative to logos produced through artificial intelligence, those created by expert humans are judged to be of higher quality. This advantage to expert humans is tied to their logos being more expressive and differentiated than the artificial intelligence logos. Finally, we discuss boundary conditions of these results.