How to Remain Human in an AI Era

They don’t want you to feel.

Don’t you see it everywhere? That nagging little icon with two letters—AI—insisting it can write a response to your coworker’s simple email, summarize a text from your mom, or even paraphrase an album so you don’t have to slosh through the mind-numbing experience of actually listening to music.

It’s like they’re trying to take away the experience of being human—making decisions, forming opinions, taking time to roll through emotions. Even the art of gaining knowledge: no one has to understand how to compose sentences or even which is the right type of dash to use, because don’t worry, AI will fix it for you.

I’m not 100% against AI, by any means; it’s so helpful for brainstorming or coming up with plans for getting that project done.

But it’s like makeup—not supposed to replace what you already have, but accentuate. It’s a springboard, not a guillotine.

So, embrace your humanity. Take things slow—move through feelings, instead of racing to ask AI how you should feel.

I believe what AI is trying take away is threefold:

1. being wrong,
2. being messy, and
3. being straight-up bad.

Sure, you can write a short story in .25 seconds with ChatGPT. Or you can work on it for a year or two. Is life about efficiency, or is it about experience? Is it about generating more content than any one person could consume in a lifetime, or is it about doing what you can with the time you have as a finite human?

The human experience is becoming so much more precious to me. Today, I noticed the smudge of a hand that had been pressed against an elevator door. Someone gave me a draft of my design with a word crossed out, and then the charming shorthand: “Nvm keep this.”

My generation is flocking to social media with the declaration that “Analogue is back in.” We’ve been collecting vinyls for a while, and now we’re also falling back in love with old-timey TVs and the accompanying VHS tapes.

This morning, I was reeling that life is becoming so mechanical. This evening, I am filled with increasing optimism that there are other people who want to feel and create, just like me. Who want to make plants out of pipes and crepe paper and forge worlds, then capture them in-camera, instead of generating them with just the click of a button. I was wrong this morning. I am right this evening. That’s being wrong, and then right, and that’s being human.

Here’s ways you can still be human in an increasing Artificially Intelligent world.

1. Write a letter to someone you love, telling them how you feel.
2. Draw a knickknack from your home.
3. Listen to a whole album from beginning to end (bonus points if it’s vinyl or cassette).
4. Take a walk and list all the things you can see.
5. Ask your mom/dad/grandparents about their childhood and record it as a voice memo for history’s sake.
6. Write a short story based on a random word from a friend.
7. Buy a disposable film camera and capture small moments over a whole season (please share them with me, I’d love to see them!).
8. Print photos and compile them in a photo album.
9. Walk around a gravestone and contemplate your mortality.
10. Compose a poem about the last emotion you felt.

Which one will you do this week?