This past May, OpenAI released a series of video ads promoting the launch of its new Chat GPT-4.o. In one, an OpenAI engineer literally speaks out loud with the language model’s virtual assistant, which the company enthuses can “reason across audio, vision, and text in real time.” And reason it does, though with an unexpected twist: After first complimenting the engineer for “rocking an OpenAI hoodie,” the female-sounding assistant asks, “What’s up with that ceiling?” before correctly surmising that the room is outfitted as a production studio. When the engineer then explains that they’re filming a “big announcement”—the launch of the assistant itself—it giggles before responding flirtatiously, “Well, color me intrigued!”

To which I couldn’t help but think: If this is how “human-like” AI sounds, perhaps I’ll take a little less human—and a bit more AI.

Indeed, in its quest to imitate human affect with technological precision, OpenAI may have inadvertently held up a mirror to some of our most annoying traits, including our affinity for inane small talk and our predilection for slang and cliché. With all the worry from AI-doomsday corners about humanity’s imminent end, it’s worth asking whether we wouldn’t be better off if technology made certain aspects of human behavior obsolete.

Of course, in deciding what to hang onto and what we can do without, we first need to determine what those singularly human qualities are. Fortunately, this is the goal of a number of EconTalk episodes of late, most obvious among them Russ’s talk with scholar of entrepreneurship Teppo Felin. Felin believes that the human way of thinking, which goes beyond prediction to generate new ideas, provides an essential complement to computation and data-based reasoning. This approach, which can not only tell us what has already happened, but also imagine something wholly new, is how the Wright Brothers were able to invent the first airplane, for example, and why Felin’s certain, in a future defined by AI, that Team Human will still be around.

Journalist Charles Duhigg came at the subject from a different angle by studying the science of communication. In his book Supercommunicators, he claims that the key to having great conversations is matching our response to the type of conversation we’re in, as well as asking deep questions and demonstrating vulnerability. His insights reveal yet another unique aspect of the human experience: Namely, the urgent need to be understood. Poet and lawyer Dwayne Betts sees evidence of this in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic call for civil disobedience. Along with expressing the power of the human spirit to rise above anger and despair, King’s letter, argues Betts, reveals the essential role of community in enabling our self-realization.

Finally, psychologist Paul Bloom locates the source of our humanity in what technology may one day make obsolete: our own mortality. He and Russ discuss a future that is by turns tantalizing and terrifying, in which artificial versions of loved ones are used to dampen our grief at their loss. That many of us view the idea of such simulations as more abomination than blessing underscores an important point: To be human is not only to be able, but also to need to feel sorrow and pain.

Ultimately, there is no one answer to what separates us from robots, and future EconTalk episodes are certain to come up with many more. In the meantime, perhaps the best approach to the challenge of preserving and leveraging those human qualities we value most is the one put forward by technology analyst and enthusiast Azeem Azhar. Explaining that the pace of innovation is objectively faster than our ability to adapt, Azhar suggests that we humans preemptively concede the race. Rather than try to achieve robot-like powers ourselves, we should focus on channeling AI toward positive social ends, enhancing lives lived at human scales and moving at human speeds.

And if we can do that without the insipid chatter, definitely count me in.

Marla Braverman
Editor at EconTalk

Mining the Conversation

A selection of additional EconTalk episodes that explore the ways in which science, technology—and even Sudoku—reveal what being human means.

Nicholas Bostrom on Purpose, Pleasure, and Meaning in a World Without Work Humans have always based their sense of self-worth on their usefulness to others. If that foundation is removed—in, for example, the kind of “solved world” AI may well bring about—what would that do to our understanding of a life well-lived? Nicholas Bostrom has a few ideas.

Ian Leslie on Being Human in the Age of AI In the age of AI, warns Ian Leslie, computers will excel at the formula for good writing, music, and art far more than us mere human beings. Therefore, our only hope in the struggle to remain human is to rail against the algorithm—and embrace the complex, ambiguous, and unexpected instead.

A.J. Jacobs on Solving Life’s Puzzles Author A.J. Jacobs thinks puzzles, properly understood, can offer opportunities for self-improvement and clues to the meaning of life. Then again, they also offer proof of the quirky, irrational, and delightfully imperfect parts of our humanity.

Conversation Starters

A selection of films, television shows, poems, and podcasts that pit humans against machines—and present them as winners, too.

“Be Right Back,” an episode of Black Mirror. Inspired by the question of whether to delete a dead friend’s phone number from one’s list of contacts, the episode of the dystopian British series tells the story of a young woman whose boyfriend is killed in a car accident. As she mourns him, she discovers that technology can allow her to communicate with a simulation—with predictably dark results.

“Ways of Hearing,” a podcast episode on 99% Invisible. When the tape started rolling in analog recording studios, there was a sense that musicians were trying to capture a certain moment—a sense, some listeners swear, that digital machines just can’t reproduce. Hear how technology forever changed not only the way the music is made, but also—and more importantly—our unique relationship to time itself.

“We Have the Technology,” a poem by Michael Robbins. For all those who think that poetry and technology exist in entirely different realms, poet Michael Robbins has a delicious surprise: smoothies with GPS.

The Top-Ten Films about AI from an Alan Turing ethics fellow. Countless movies share the familiar plot line of AI going rogue and posing a threat to humanity. This list, by contrast, eschews apocalyptic thrillers in favor of films that explore the role of AI in society, our relationship with technology, and what it means to be human in a digital age.

Klara and the Sun, a book by Kazuo Ishiguro. Narrated by an Artificial Friend in an uncomfortably near future, Klara and the Sun one-ups Ishiguro’s provocative last novel, which centers on a trio of clones bred specifically to have their organs harvested. Once again, he’s turned the tables on us humans to deeply disturbing effect: By giving voice to our artificial versions, Ishiguro makes us confront our fragile humanity.

 

Have the last word.