We’ll always want human creations
We’ll always want human creations
One of the upcoming challenges with AI is that it’ll likely be able to create “better” things than humans can — better art, better stories, better movies. Of course, the definition of “better” is quite vague, but if a machine can take all of human learning and ideas and put them together, the results can be quite magical.
Whether you agree with the above or not, I think that human-made art will always have a big draw (even if we think it’s not as good). We need only look at sports as an example.
In any professional sport, the players aren’t the best that we could possible put on the field; they’re the best that we can put on the field under specific conditions (namely, no performance-enhancing drugs). We could allow professional athletes to use those drugs at their own risk, and the results would be amazing to watch. Harder throws, longer home runs, brutal tackles and ridiculous slam dunks.
As a society, we’ve decided that natural is better. There are attempts to bring enhanced players into competition (like the “Enhanced Games” coming next year), but I don’t see that making a dent in traditional sports.
AI is the same
I see AI through a similar lens. It will take over more of our world than steroids ever did, but we’ll still yearn to see art created by real humans. AI may take over many aspects of our digital lives, but hearing stories and seeing works created by human hands will always have a place.
The challenge, at least for the near future, is determining which is which. Right now, AI is often used to try to fool people, from fake Facebook posts to students “writing” papers with ChatGPT. My hope is that in the future we’ll have tools to help sift the chaff from the grain to know which is which.
Related, this is why in-person events are likely to continue to thrive. A future with AI will have amazing benefits to all of us, but human connection (and output) matters and that’s not going to change.