AI Won’t Replace Human Distinctiveness

ChatGPT has entered the room, and with a lighting fast adoption rate, it has left us in awe of its capabilities, and sometimes fearful of its potential to surpass human intelligence. But the truth is, AI is here to enable efficiencies and aid us, not replace us.

When I attended SXSW last month, I couldn't help but notice that a panelist at times seemed as though he was reading from a teleprompter. As he revealed later, the entire presentation had been created by ChatGPT just the day before—a stark contrast to the 17 days he had spent working on it the previous year. Excited to hear that, I attempted to use some AI tools too, successfully, to create a variety of different letters as well as some interesting travel itineraries. 

AI can be a useful time-saver, but do the benefits outweigh the potential negative effects? It's too soon to tell, but drawbacks may include feelings of guilt, impostor syndrome, or fear of becoming obsolete. Moreover, the CEO of Open AI acknowledges their slow response to biases in ChatGPT and its potential to spread misinformation and generate inappropriate content.

Wired magazine’s founder, Kevin Kelly, brings a more positive outlook. For him, AI can become our universal personal intern by helping us tackle tasks we typically don’t like to perform in a much quicker way. He believes AI can aid us in deciphering codes, detecting flaws in a script, writing academic course programs, planning travel itineraries, producing product descriptions, generating headlines for blogs, and beyond.

However, we cannot ignore one important fact: AI will never have the same level of distinctiveness that humans possess. Although it can perform tasks efficiently, it lacks the unique perspective and judgment that humans bring to the table. Therefore, it's crucial to ensure any AI tool is used safely and effectively, with an understanding of its limitations and how to work alongside human expertise.

Writer Esther Perel illustrates the potential pitfalls of overly relying on AI. A fan once created a bot called Esther AI, claiming that it was superior to Perel herself, arguing it was available to him at any time and for no cost. While Perel acknowledged that the bot may indeed outperform her books, she emphasized it could never replace her because "by reducing our complex problems to 1s and 0s, we are becoming more black and white in our thinking, especially in our relationships."

She also warned about the perils of what she called Artificial Intimacy. By removing the risks of venturing into something new, we miss out on learning opportunities and become numb to the nuances of human interaction. 

Finally, futurist Amy Webb provocatively reminds us that the answers generated by AI are entirely dependent on the questions we ask, emphasizing the importance of efficiently framing questions to yield productive results. It is crucial to train people of all ages to reflect on what and how to ask, as no one, not even Artificial Intelligence, has all the answers or knows everything—yet.