Subjective task load and psychological ownership in generative AI collaborative music creation: mechanisms shaping creators’ state sense of agency

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has transitioned into a collaborative creator in music composition, raising concerns about its impact on human creative agency. This study investigates how AI automation levels affect creators’ state sense of agency, examining the serial mediating roles of subjective task load and psychological ownership, and the moderating role of musical expertise. A 3 (AI automation level: low, medium, high) × 2 (musical expertise: novice, expert) between-subjects experiment was conducted (N = 162). Participants completed a music co-creation task using standardized AI generative tools. Results revealed that higher AI automation significantly reduced subjective task load, psychological ownership, and state sense of agency. Furthermore, subjective task load and psychological ownership serially mediated the negative relationship between AI automation and state sense of agency. Musical expertise significantly moderated these effects, with experts experiencing a more pronounced decline in psychological ownership and agency under high automation compared to novices. These findings indicate that while high automation reduces creative effort, it alienates creators from their output by diminishing process involvement and belongingness. Future generative AI systems should balance efficiency with agency preservation to support sustainable human-AI co-creation.