Exploring the Human-AI Creative Spectrum: Predictive Insights from Public Perceptions on AI and Art

Abstract

The following study investigates the perception of AI-created art in contrast to human-made artworks as Artificial Intelligence (AI) enters creative domains more and more.Amixed-methodsurveywasdevelopedcalledArtistVoicesMatter,andthe answers of artists, educators, students, and the generalpopulationwerecollected.Quantitativedatawasplottedandthesentimentof the open-endedresponseswasanalyzedviaTextBloblibrary. ItisfoundthatdespitetheAIgeneratedartbeingrecognizedasasignof innovation, human generated art is still more touching and believed in. Moreover, the majority of the respondents advocated the necessity of regulation that would guarantee a transparent AI art. These perceptions emphasize the needtoretainasenseofhuman emotion and moral bearing in an artistically twenty-first-century driven by Artificial Intelligence.

Introduction

This study explores how AI-generated art is reshaping perceptions of creativity, originality, and emotional authenticity in comparison to human-made art. As AI increasingly creates visually compelling works using models trained on human art, debates around authorship, ownership, and ethics intensify. While AI can mimic styles, it often lacks the emotional depth tied to human experience, leading to skepticism among the public.

Key Findings from the Literature Review:

• Human bias: People tend to favor human-created art due to emotional connection and perceived authenticity.

• Philosophical concerns: AI challenges traditional notions of creativity but is still seen as lacking emotional maturity.

• Economic and ethical fears: Concerns include job loss in creative fields, loss of artistic identity, and a need for regulation.

• Societal perception: There is growing support for labeling or regulating AI art and recognizing its limitations emotionally and ethically.

Methodology:

The study used a mixed-methods approach—surveying artists, students, and the general public through multiple-choice and open-ended questions. Text and sentiment analysis were performed using Python and the TextBlob library to extract emotional tone and societal views.

Visual and Sentiment Analysis Results:

• Job Impact (Fig. 1): ~70% fear AI negatively affects job security in creative industries.

• Art Preference (Fig. 2): ~60% prefer human-made art due to emotional depth.

• Regulation (Fig. 3): ~85% support regulating or labeling AI-generated art.

• Sentiment Polarity (Fig. 4): Human art received higher positive sentiment (0.12) than AI art (0.08), indicating stronger emotional trust in human creativity.

Data Modeling & Processing:

• Structured (quantitative) and unstructured (qualitative) data were cleaned and analyzed separately.

• Textual responses were categorized into "AI-related" and "human-related" for sentiment comparison.

• Data was cleaned and saved in a reproducible format for future use.

Conclusion

The current research offers essential information on the way people evaluate the artworks ofArtificialIntelligenceasopposedto human artists.AlthoughthereisgreatadmirationofthetechnicalcomplexityofAI-generatedart,itisdepictedasdeficientof emotional empathy and even authenticity as works byhumanartistsdopossess.Theobviouspopularaffectionofartthatexists because of the human-made objects also underlines the enduring significance of the emotional appeal, motivation, and experience; these are the fundamental values of the perception of artfulness. Also,theresultsidentify a significant demand of moral control and openness in AI producing content. Sentiment analysis furtheremphasizedthe idea that people will be more willing and inclined to react to human creativity in a more positive, trusting manner, demonstrating anemotionaldetachmenttoAI-madeworks.WiththefurtherdevelopmentofAItakingplacein the creative fields, this research highlights the necessity of the impact of technological advancement on fundamental human values.Itinvitestheeffortsofartists,technologists,andpolicymakers to join together in an effort to be sure that AI supplements rather than uproots who we are creatively as humans.

References

[1] Horton Jr, C.B., White, M.W. & Iyengar, S.S. Bias against AI art can enhance perceptions of human creativity. Sci Rep 13, 19001 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-45202-3 [2] Grassini, S., & Koivisto, M. (2024). Artificial Creativity? Evaluating AI Against Human Performance in Creative Interpretation of Visual Stimuli. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 41(7), 4037–4048. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2024.2345430 [3] Garcia, M. B. (2024). The Paradox of Artificial Creativity: Challenges and Opportunities of Generative AI Artistry. Creativity Research Journal, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2024.2354622 [4] Hall, J. and Schofield, D. (2025) The Value of Creativity: Human Produced Art vs. AI-Generated Art. Art and Design Review, 13, 65-88. doi: 10.4236/adr.2025.131005. [5] Pagani, M., & Wind, Y. (2024). Unlocking Marketing Creativity Using Artificial Intelligence. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 60(1), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1177/10949968241265855 (Original work published 2025) [6] Bran, C. Rughini?, G. Nadoleanu and M. G. Flaherty, \"The Emerging Social Status of Generative AI: Vocabularies of AI Competence in Public Discourse,\" 2023 24th International Conference on Control Systems and Computer Science (CSCS), Bucharest, Romania, 2023, pp. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10214752/citations#citations [7] M. Puerta-Beldarrain, O. Gómez-Carmona, R. Sánchez-Corcuera, D. Casado-Mansilla, D. López-de-Ipiña and L. Chen, \"A Multifaceted Vision of the Human-AI Collaboration: A Comprehensive Review,\" in IEEE Access, vol. 13, pp. 29375-29405, 2025, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10857320 [8] Wenyu Zhang, Cong Xie, Liuqing Jiang, Li Yang, Zhe Hu, Ning Hao, Neural correlates of evaluative bias against AI-labeled versus human-labeled artworks, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2025;, nsaf071, https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsaf071 [9] Yadav, Mohit, et al. \"AI and the Evolution of Artistic Expression: Impacts on Society and Culture.\" Transforming Cinema with Artificial Intelligence, edited by U?ur Kilinç, IGI Global Scientific Publishing, 2025, pp. 15-36. https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-3916-9.ch002 [10] Bozdag, A. A. (2023). AIsmosis and the pas de deux of human-AI interaction: Exploring the communicative dance between society and artificial intelligence. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 13(4), e202340. https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/13414 [11] SON, JEYOUNG and LEE, JIWON, ‘Art’Ificial Intelligence?: Consumer Assessment of Artworks Created by Human vs. Generative Ai. Available at SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5047908

Copyright

Copyright © 2025 Nikitha AM, Manju Sadasivan. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.