The rise of AI is often framed as the downfall of the human race. It’s a topic that inspires endless doom-scrolling and a kind of low-grade existential dread about the future. But what if, instead of dragging us into despair, AI’s massive reach and power could actually make us more appreciative of what makes us human?
When I roamed around our SXSW Passionfruit event asking people: “What’s something AI will never do as well as humans?” I expected to hear the same answer on repeat. People saying “love” or “create art.” But true to the human spirit, every answer was different.
“I don’t think robots can direct,” one attendee said thoughtfully.
“Fighting,” said Israell, a creator on TikTok. Once we got into it, it was clear he meant martial arts and not emotional battles. Though, honestly, both feel very human and equally hard to emulate.
“Doing the robot,” another person joked, sending us down a philosophical path wondering how robots might feel about our imitation of them. Is doing the robot cultural appropriation? we briefly wondered, laughing.
And while the answers varied wildly, a common thread quietly emerged: I had unintentionally gathered a round-up of what makes us us.
“Sing a song by a campfire and make you cry,” said Pilou, an artist from Montreal.
“Make friends,” offered a content creator.
“Be soft,” added another.
It was summed up beautifully by popular Tik Toker JT Barnett who said: “Intuitive connection.”
But perhaps the most powerful answer came from one of my favorite creators, Baron Ryan. Ryan is a sort of Gen Z Woody Allen (minus the allegations). Based in Austin, his TikToks resemble short films more than internet content.
When I asked him the question, he paused. Then said: “Screw up, actually.”
It was disarming in its simplicity.
“Robots are very precise. They can get it just right,” he said. “What’s beautiful about humans, about humanity, is that you don’t get it exactly right. And wherever you land… that’s the art.”
Humanity’s Imperfection Is What Makes Us Interesting
It made me realize that, as a fan of his videos, all I see is the end product. The perfect editing and the masterfully timed music. But what I don’t see is all of the mistakes it took him to get there. Behind every polished piece of content, are countless screw-ups that lead to it.
There are no accidents with AI. No winding roads that lead you down a creative path that you would have never otherwise encountered. I thought about all the best content I’ve made and how error was an essential part of the process. Writers know this better than anyone.
As Joan Didion famously said in her 1976 essay “Why I Write,” in the The New York Times Book Review, “I write entirely to find out what I think.” It’s through the process of dancing with chance and probability without knowing where we’ll end up, that we land somewhere interesting. And there are countless examples of this throughout history.
One of the most notable examples is Michelangelo’s Pietà, a sculpture carved from a block of marble with such a large crack that he had to rework the figures of Madonna and Jesus to accommodate it, ultimately turning the flaw into a defining feature of the piece.
It’s ironic because robots are supposed to solve human error, but what if that’s their downfall? What if the one thing we’ve designed robots to do — be flawless — is the very thing that will ensure they’ll never fully replace us? Maybe being human is not about getting it right, but rather, it’s about getting it beautifully wrong. And no robot can compete with that.
