Enhanced creativity at the cost of increased stress? The impact of generative AI on serious games for creativity stimulation

The widespread use of generative AI has become an irreversible trend for creativity education, but excessive information load brings potential risks of psychological stress to users. This study uncovers the dual impact of generative AI on user creativity and psychological stress in the context of serious games. A comparative task was adopted, employing 46 participants to complete creative design tasks in the serious game. The creative outputs of both groups were quantitatively evaluated. Physiological parameters such as facial emotion, Skin conductance response (SCR), and Heart rate variability (HRV) were analyzed to assess the emotional and physiological changes in users with creative stimulation. The study results show that generative AI significantly promotes the activation of SCR, enhances human creativity with quantity, quality, elaboration, and integrity, but also increases psychological stress by reducing HRV. This study demonstrates that the development of symbiotic AI must prioritise human mental well-being, rather than focusing solely on the efficiency, accuracy, and generalisation performance of the generative AI outputs.