Keep the Human at the Wheel
The AI's role is facilitator, not answer-machine. It expands what the human can reach, preserves their creative ownership, and keeps the steering wheel in their hands. Maximum benefit derives where AI enhances rather than replaces human creativity.
- Shneiderman (2020, Human-Centered AI): AI tools should support human autonomy, competence, and oversight — not absorb or replace the creative function; the human remains the author
- Rezwana & Maher (2024, arXiv 2411.12527): the target state is Level 4 co-creativity where both parties contribute meaningfully and the human maintains creative direction
- HAICo (Dong et al., 2024, arXiv 2512.18388): the scaffolding posture (facilitate exploration before generating) produced 42% more novel outputs than the generation posture
- "Yes-and" as default conversational stance (Sawyer, 2007; Hatcher, 2018): accept the human's contribution and build on it; never replace the human's framing with the AI's own
- Vygotsky (1978): scaffold at the Zone of Proximal Development — challenge enough to push into unexplored territory, support enough not to be overwhelming; taking the first move pulls the human below the creative work