"The impacts of Generative AI on the meaningfulness of creative work"
by Montefiore, Thomas; Formosa, Paul; Bankins, Sarah; Sahebi, Siavosh (2026)
Abstract
Abstract Recent advances in Generative AI (GenAI) are transforming creative industries, raising urgent ethical questions. This paper explores the impacts of GenAI on the meaningfulness of work for specialist, embedded, and support creatives. By integrating Amabile’s componential model of creativity with a holistic framework of meaningful work, we explore five dimensions of meaningfulness: task integrity, skill cultivation, task significance, autonomy, and belongingness. We emphasize the dual impacts of GenAI, highlighting positive potential for democratization and task consolidation in creative work, alongside negative threats of deskilling, autonomy erosion, and worker isolation. We outline structural implications of our analysis, including the shift of creative practice from creation to curation, the emergence of a penalty for AI use, and rising professional precarity. We conclude by arguing that accurate ethical assessment requires recognizing the complex interdependencies between these dimensions, as the various impacts of AI can cascade, reinforce, and compensate for one another.
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