Can Machines Dream? On the Creativity of Large Language Models

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. — Erich Fromm

Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way. — Edward de Bono

Creativity is considered along with the ability to reason a uniquely human ability. The arrival of Large Language Models (LLMs) and their ability to mimic human skills has begun to undermine this view. There has been much discussion about whether LLMs are capable of reasoning, but less about the creativity of these models.

Quantifying reasoning is easier (evaluation is conducted on problem-solving benchmark datasets), but quantifying creativity is more complex. Nevertheless, creativity is one of the activities that makes us human: writing books and screenplays, generating poetry and works of art, making groundbreaking discoveries, or devising theories all require creativity.