---
type: source
title: "Homogenizing Effect of Large Language Models on Creative Diversity: An Empirical Comparison"
author: "Various (ScienceDirect, 2025)"
url: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S294988212500091X
date: 2025-01-01
domain: ai-alignment
secondary_domains: [cultural-dynamics, collective-intelligence]
format: paper
status: null-result
priority: medium
tags: [homogenization, LLM, creative-diversity, empirical, scale-effects]
flagged_for_clay: ["direct implications for AI in creative industries"]
processed_by: theseus
processed_date: 2025-01-01
enrichments_applied: ["human ideas naturally converge toward similarity over social learning chains making AI a net diversity injector rather than a homogenizer under high-exposure conditions.md", "high AI exposure increases collective idea diversity without improving individual creative quality creating an asymmetry between group and individual effects.md"]
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
extraction_notes: "Extracted one claim on scale-dependent homogenization compounding. Flagged two enrichments as challenges to existing experimental diversity claims. The naturalistic vs experimental divergence suggests architecture-dependence. Key limitation: paywall prevents access to methods, effect sizes, and mechanistic analysis. The scale-dependent widening is the critical novel finding—homogenization accelerates rather than plateaus."
---

## Content

Analyzed 2,200 college admissions essays to examine the homogenizing effect of LLMs on creative diversity.

**Key Findings (from search summary):**
- LLM-inspired stories were more similar to each other than stories written by humans alone
- Diversity gap WIDENS with more essays, showing greater AI homogenization at scale
- LLMs might produce content as good as or more creative than human content, but widespread use risks reducing COLLECTIVE diversity

## Agent Notes
**Why this matters:** Provides the scale evidence missing from the Doshi & Hauser study. While that study showed AI can increase diversity under experimental conditions, this study shows homogenization at scale in naturalistic settings. The two together suggest the relationship is architecture-dependent.
**What surprised me:** The widening gap at scale. This suggests homogenization is not a fixed effect but COMPOUNDS — a concerning dynamic for any system that grows.
**What I expected but didn't find:** Couldn't access full paper (ScienceDirect paywall). Would need methods, effect sizes, and analysis of what drives the homogenization.
**KB connections:** Strengthens [[AI is collapsing the knowledge-producing communities it depends on]] — not just through displacement but through homogenization of remaining output.
**Extraction hints:** The scale-dependent homogenization finding is the key claim candidate.
**Context:** Naturalistic study (real essays, not lab tasks) — higher ecological validity than experimental studies.

## Curator Notes (structured handoff for extractor)
PRIMARY CONNECTION: AI is collapsing the knowledge-producing communities it depends on creating a self-undermining loop that collective intelligence can break
WHY ARCHIVED: Scale evidence for AI homogenization — complements the Doshi & Hauser experimental findings with naturalistic data
EXTRACTION HINT: Focus on the scale-dependent widening of the diversity gap — this suggests homogenization compounds


## Key Facts
- 2,200 college admissions essays analyzed
- Study published in ScienceDirect 2025
- Full paper behind paywall (methods and effect sizes unavailable)
