Cre-AI-tivity: The Intersection of Human Ingenuity and AI Collaboration in Scriptwriting with ChatGPT 4.0

Abstract

This thesis explores the integration of artificial intelligence (AI), specifically ChatGPT 4.0, into the scriptwriting process, examining its implications for creativity. Previous research has explored the theoretical implications of AI's role for creativity, agency, and authorship, engaging with how the advent of AI technologies has begun to challenge and stretch these established concepts. Scholars have debated the degree to which AI might reconfigure the traditional creative landscape, speculating on AI's potential to either enhance human creativity or displace it. What this thesis contributes to the academic debate is an empirical reflection on how the intersections of creativity, agency, and authorship are practically conveyed when a scriptwriter collaborates with AI. With a mixed method tool analysis, I asses the interaction between human scriptwriters and ChatGPT, exploring how these engagements articulate the collaborative creative process. The investigation reveals that ChatGPT's role in scriptwriting extends beyond a functional aide to that of a collaborator, actively shaping narratives in conjunction with human writers. This partnership weakens the traditional autonomy and control scriptwriters have held, introducing distributed agency that redefines both the creative process and the roles within it. The scriptwriter evolves into a director, guiding AI-generated content without necessarily crafting each line of text. Prompting AI with specific, targeted requests becomes a new form of creative expression, with the quality and direction of prompts profoundly shaping the narrative output. Through this lens, the thesis advocates for a broader understanding of ChatGPT's creativity as a joint effort between humans and AI, suggesting that the future of creative industries lies in embracing the collaborative synergy between human writers and artificial intelligence.