Psittacines of Innovation? Assessing the True Novelty of AI Creations

Abstract: We examine whether AI systems generate truly novel ideas rather than merely regurgitating patterns learned during training. Utilizing a novel experimental design, we task an AI with generating project titles for hypothetical crowdfunding campaigns. We compare within AI-generated project titles, measuring repetition and complexity. We compare between the AI-generated titles and actual observed field data using an extension of maximum mean discrepancy--a metric derived from the application of kernel mean embeddings of statistical distributions to high-dimensional machine learning (large language) embedding vectors--yielding a structured analysis of AI output novelty. Results suggest that (1) the AI generates unique content even under increasing task complexity, and at the limits of its computational capabilities, (2) the generated content has face validity, being consistent with both inputs to other generative AI and in qualitative comparison to field data, and (3) exhibits divergence from field data, mitigating concerns relating to intellectual property rights. We discuss implications for copyright and trademark law.