Existential Creativity in an Artificial Intelligence-Driven World

AI challenges creativity as humanity's mirror for expression and understanding.

Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

Key points

• AI’s rise challenges human creativity, leaving us to question what remains essential and expressive.
• Existential creativity, rooted in emotion and meaning, reflects humanity's unique search for understanding.
• In the Cognitive Age, art and existential expression may be humanity's final frontier beyond AI’s reach.

What if the greatest threat to human creativity isn’t that artificial intelligence (AI) will surpass us but that it will leave us wondering what remains uniquely ours? As machines begin to master the art of creation—writing, composing, perhaps even dreaming—are we at risk of losing our most essential form of expression? Or is there something deeper, more existential, that AI can never touch?

As AI continues its largely benevolent yet intrusive trajectory, there’s a general belief that machines will outperform humans in many areas of cognitive ability. AI is already generating art, composing music, and even crafting poetry. But amidst this technological progress lies a question that cuts to the heart of human existence: What remains truly and uniquely human in the realm of creativity?

The answer may lie not in the cognitive domain but in the emotional and existential depths that machines cannot replicate. This is existential creativity—a form of expression that transcends data, algorithms, and mere problem-solving, rooted instead in the human experience of grappling with life’s most fundamental questions.

The Nature of Existential Creativity

Existential creativity isn’t just about producing something novel. It’s a reflection of our deepest emotions—fear, joy, love, loss—and our desire to make sense of life’s uncertainties. It’s creativity born from the human need to confront the essential questions of existence: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of it all?

Unlike AI, which generates creative output based on pattern recognition and data synthesis, existential creativity is shaped by struggle, conflict, and the search for meaning. Consider the work of Vincent van Gogh. His art wasn’t driven by technical perfection or efficiency but by an emotional and existential turmoil that shaped his worldview. Van Gogh’s creativity was a direct expression of his inner chaos, his need to find beauty and purpose in a life filled with suffering.

While AI can produce art and music that mimics human creativity, it lacks this existential depth. Machines don’t create from a place of personal struggle or emotional longing. They don’t seek meaning in their outputs. Human existential creativity, on the other hand, is often irrational and unpredictable, emerging from the tension between our desire for order and the chaos of life itself.

Mortality and the Drive to Create

One of the most powerful drivers of human creativity is our awareness of mortality. The knowledge that life is finite creates an urgency to express, to leave something behind, to transcend the boundaries of our time on Earth. This is why so much of human creativity—whether in art, literature, or philosophy—is a response to the existential reality of death.

Writers like Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky infused their work with themes of life, death, and the search for meaning. Their creations were not simply intellectual exercises but deeply personal explorations of the human condition. AI, in contrast, doesn’t wrestle with mortality. It doesn’t create out of fear of its own end or the desire to leave a legacy. It generates output, but it lacks the existential urgency that drives so much of human creativity.

The Search for Meaning in Chaos

Human creativity often emerges from the need to find order in chaos, as seen in movements like Dadaism and Surrealism, which arose in response to war and political upheaval. These movements broke down traditional forms to explore the absurdity and unpredictability of existence. Picasso’s Cubism similarly disrupted conventional perspectives, offering fragmented, multidimensional views of reality. His work, influenced by ideas like the fourth dimension, wasn’t about aesthetic appeal alone—it was about confronting the complexity of a rapidly changing world.

AI, on the other hand, doesn’t create in response to chaos or crisis. While it processes data and generates outputs, it lacks the human drive to reflect on meaning or make sense of uncertainty. Picasso’s explorations in Cubism sought to push the boundaries of understanding, revealing deeper truths about reality. In contrast, AI’s outputs can be lacking of this existential inquiry, missing the uniquely human urge to transform disorder into meaning.

Creativity as a Mirror of the Self

Human creativity is also deeply tied to identity. We create as a way of expressing who we are, both as individuals and as a collective. Our art, literature, and music reflect our evolving understanding of ourselves and our place in the world. Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits, for example, weren’t just depictions of her physical appearance but intimate explorations of her identity, pain, and resilience. Her art acted as a mirror of her inner world, a way to process her personal struggles and share her unique perspective on life.

AI doesn’t have a self to explore. It lacks a sense of identity or personal history, and its creativity is driven purely by algorithms and inputs, not by the personal journey of discovery that defines much of human creative expression. While AI might mimic creativity, its output often feels vapid, devoid of the emotional resonance and inner life that give human art its profound depth.

Creativity in the Cognitive Age

As we enter the Cognitive Age, where AI plays an increasingly dominant role in cognitive tasks, existential creativity may become the last frontier of human expression. In a future where machines handle much of the intellectual workload, humans may turn to art, philosophy, and emotional expression as a way to differentiate themselves. This could even spark a new creative renaissance, focused less on technological innovation and more on exploring the depths of our shared human experience.

Existential creativity is not about producing something new for the sake of innovation. It’s about making sense of what it means to be human. In a world where AI excels at logic, reasoning, and even creative output, humans may continue to lead in realms of emotional depth, existential inquiry, and the search for meaning. This kind of creativity, rooted in the human condition, might be the final frontier—a place that AI, for all its advancements, can never fully reach.

And perhaps it is in this existential creativity that the true value of human expression will endure, long after AI has mastered the art of creation.