[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-random-idea-prompts-boost-human-creativity-not-ais":10,"sections":35},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":24,"tags":25,"sources":30,"feedback":34,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":34,"total_tokens":34},6670,"random-idea-prompts-boost-human-creativity-not-ais","Random Idea Prompts Boost Human Creativity, Not AI's","A study finds random cross-domain prompts reliably boost human creativity but only help top LLMs when the borrowed idea is a big semantic leap.","A classic creativity trick - borrow an idea from something totally unrelated - works differently on chatbots than it does on people, according to a new study.\n\nResearchers had human participants and seven large language models design products two ways: either drawing inspiration from a random, unrelated source or simply addressing an unmet user need. Humans came up with more original ideas whenever they had to make that random cross-domain leap, and the boost held at nearly any distance between source and target. LLMs were more original than humans overall, but the random-source prompt gave them no consistent advantage. It only helped once the source idea was semantically distant enough, and even then only the highest-rated models capitalized on it. The two groups also borrowed differently: humans lifted surface features, like what something looks like, while LLMs pulled structural and functional properties, like how something works.\n\nThis matters because \"add a random constraint\" is standard advice for prompting chatbots toward more original output, on the assumption that a trick from human psychology transfers directly to machines. This study suggests it doesn't, and that raw model capability - not just clever prompting - determines whether an LLM can exploit a distant analogy at all.\n\nWeaker models, in other words, may simply lack the reach to turn a strange comparison into a usable idea, no matter how the prompt is worded.","[\"llms\",\"creativity research\",\"cross-domain mapping\",\"ai research\"]","2026-09-17T04:00:00.000Z","2026-09-18T05:20:08.776Z","2026-09-18T05:20:20.688Z","published",null,[],"ai",[26,27,28,29],"llms","creativity research","cross-domain mapping","ai research",[31],{"name":32,"url":33},"arXiv cs.AI","https:\u002F\u002Farxiv.org\u002Fabs\u002F2603.19087",0,{"sections":36},[37,41,45,50,55,59,63,68,73,77,82,87,92,97],{"name":38,"slug":24,"count":39,"latest_published_at":40},"AI",3852,"2026-09-17T08:27:09.000Z",{"name":42,"slug":43,"count":44,"latest_published_at":18},"Security","security",648,{"name":46,"slug":47,"count":48,"latest_published_at":49},"Policy","policy",338,"2026-09-11T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":51,"slug":52,"count":53,"latest_published_at":54},"Deals","deals",179,"2026-06-29T20:02:07.000Z",{"name":56,"slug":57,"count":58,"latest_published_at":18},"Hardware","hardware",154,{"name":60,"slug":61,"count":62,"latest_published_at":18},"Science","science",114,{"name":64,"slug":65,"count":66,"latest_published_at":67},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",99,"2026-09-09T17:27:33.000Z",{"name":69,"slug":70,"count":71,"latest_published_at":72},"Software","software",75,"2026-09-10T20:41:21.000Z",{"name":74,"slug":75,"count":76,"latest_published_at":18},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",73,{"name":78,"slug":79,"count":80,"latest_published_at":81},"Startups","startups",55,"2026-09-09T23:14:29.000Z",{"name":83,"slug":84,"count":85,"latest_published_at":86},"Gaming","gaming",43,"2026-09-10T12:18:06.000Z",{"name":88,"slug":89,"count":90,"latest_published_at":91},"General","general",41,"2026-09-08T01:57:23.000Z",{"name":93,"slug":94,"count":95,"latest_published_at":96},"Reviews","reviews",20,"2026-06-24T12:00:01.000Z",{"name":98,"slug":99,"count":100,"latest_published_at":101},"How-To","how-to",6,"2026-06-16T09:00:00.000Z"]