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.