Being human in an AI world
I saw some videos with AI-generated humans making the rounds online — computer-generated influencers in fashionable outfits — almost impossible to tell apart from real people.
Fascinating. Scary.
When computers can generate perfect humans from a prompt, one question that comes to mind is:
What role do I play in this world if I'm neither as clever as ChatGPT nor as beautiful as the women created by AI?
The answer surprised me.
If we can generate perfect people with the click of a button, striving towards perfection will not bring much value. It won't differentiate me from the abundance of AI-generated avatars with perfect noses and Mensa test scores.
What will?
The fact that I'm human.
When I breathe, my chest expands and contracts to let in air, which I need to transport energy to the cells that make up my body.
And my face gives away what I truly feel in a fraction of a second — even when I try to hide it.
Also, my working memory is limited (and there are no upgrades available), so I leave cupboard doors wide open as I move to the next task.
I'm a living organism. As far from computer generated you can be.
If you are mean to me, specific areas in my brain will activate, permanently impacting my nervous system. Make me feel safe, and my body will physically adjust when I'm in your presence.
I turned out this way because of a combination of genetic code, environmental factors and unique experiences. You cannot re-run the prompt and get a slightly altered version of me.
I like olives and cilantro, but not dill. I make terrible doodles in all my notebooks. And there is a story behind the scar on my forehead.
My feelings are not calculated on a computer somewhere. They are biological responses to chemical interactions. If I don't find your jokes funny, you'll have to live with that.
Being human is soon the only thing we'll be better at than AI. And this gives me so much hope.
I'm a natural at being human.
Filled with all kinds of emotions, I constantly make irrational decisions to rational requests. I can even feel what you feel just by imagining what a situation is like for you. And I'm heavily impacted by the biochemical reactions in my body.
I used to view all this as bad—or at least highly impractical. But in a world of AI, it might become my most essential quality.
What a pleasant surprise!