Are Humans Better Than Robots?
Are Humans Still Better Than Robots at the Things That Matter Most?
AI VS. HUMANS
Artificial intelligence can write an email in seconds. Robots can assemble cars with extraordinary precision. Computers can analyze millions of data points faster than any person ever could.
But speed, accuracy, and computational power aren’t the same things as being human.
For all the remarkable advances in artificial intelligence and robotics, people remain extraordinarily good at the activities that have meaning precisely because humans do them.
We run. We compete. We create. We care. We struggle. We make mistakes. We surprise each other.
And those things matter.
A Robot May Run Faster. But It Isn’t Running a Race.
Engineers have built robots that walk, run, jump, climb stairs, and navigate difficult terrain. Their abilities are impressive and will undoubtedly continue to improve.
But consider a marathon.
The significance of a marathon isn’t simply getting from the starting line to the finish line as efficiently as possible.
It’s the runner who gets up at 5:30 every morning for six months to train before work. It’s aching legs at mile 20. It’s deciding to keep going when stopping would be easier. It’s a family standing near the finish line waiting for someone they love.
A machine completing 26.2 miles may be an engineering achievement.
A human completing 26.2 miles can be a personal one.
The difference isn’t performance.
It’s meaning.
Sports Aren’t Interesting Because Humans Are Perfect
A sufficiently advanced machine could theoretically throw a baseball more accurately than a pitcher, calculate the ideal trajectory of a basketball, or react to a tennis serve faster than a human opponent.
That wouldn’t necessarily make it compelling to watch.
We watch sports partly because we don’t know what people are going to do.
A basketball player misses two free throws and then makes the game-winning shot. A runner considered too old to compete wins unexpectedly. A team that has struggled all season suddenly plays brilliantly.
Human limitations aren’t defects in sports.
They’re the reason sports exist.
Competition becomes meaningful because people must overcome fatigue, pressure, fear, doubt, injury, imperfect judgment, and the possibility of failure.
If perfection were guaranteed, there wouldn’t be much reason to watch.
Empathy Requires More Than Recognizing the Right Words
Artificial intelligence is becoming remarkably capable of recognizing emotional language and responding appropriately.
That’s valuable.
But recognizing sadness isn’t the same as experiencing loss.
A computer can identify that someone needs reassurance. A person can sit beside a grieving friend and understand something about what it means to lose someone.
Human empathy comes partly from shared vulnerability.
We know what disappointment feels like because we’ve been disappointed. We understand embarrassment because we’ve embarrassed ourselves. We recognize loneliness because most of us have experienced it.
Sometimes the most important thing one person can communicate to another isn’t information at all.
It’s simply:
I understand. I’ve been there too.
Technology can help people communicate that message.
It cannot have been there.
Art Is More Than the Finished Product
AI can already produce impressive illustrations, photographs, music, poetry, stories, and designs.
That raises an interesting question.
If a machine can produce a beautiful painting, does that make human painting less valuable?
Perhaps it makes it more interesting.
Imagine two paintings hanging beside each other.
One was generated in seconds.
The other was painted by someone who spent twenty years learning how light falls across a face, ruined hundreds of canvases, developed an unusual technique, changed styles after a painful period in life, and eventually painted something unlike anything that person had created before.
Even if the images were equally beautiful, they wouldn’t necessarily mean the same thing to us.
Because art isn’t only something we look at.
It’s evidence that another person experienced the world and tried to communicate something about that experience.
A song matters partly because someone wrote it.
A novel matters partly because someone imagined it.
A handmade object matters partly because someone’s hands made it.
The human story behind a creation can be part of the creation itself.
Humanity Is Inefficient — and That’s Often the Point
Technology tends to move toward efficiency.
People frequently move in the opposite direction.
We cook elaborate meals when we could buy prepared food.
We grow gardens when supermarkets sell vegetables.
We hike mountains when roads can take us farther with less effort.
We learn musical instruments even though recorded music is available instantly.
We write birthday cards by hand when sending a text would be faster.
We spend years becoming good at things machines might eventually accomplish in seconds.
From an efficiency standpoint, much of human behavior makes very little sense.
From a human standpoint, it makes perfect sense.
The effort is often where the value comes from.
Intelligence Isn’t the Only Thing We Value
For decades, discussions about computers have often centered on intelligence.
Can a computer beat a chess champion?
Can AI pass an exam?
Can it write software?
Can it diagnose a problem?
Can it create an image?
Those are important questions, but they may distract us from a larger one:
Is intelligence alone what makes human beings valuable?
Probably not.
We value courage, kindness, loyalty, curiosity, humor, imagination, perseverance, generosity, friendship, love, and countless other qualities that aren’t easily measured by computational performance.
A computer doesn’t become more courageous by performing a calculation faster.
A robot doesn’t become more compassionate by lifting a heavier object.
Human worth was never based on our ability to outperform machines.
Technology Is at Its Best When It Makes People More Human
None of this means robots or artificial intelligence are bad.
Quite the opposite.
Machines can do dangerous jobs. AI can help people organize information, discover patterns, communicate ideas, automate repetitive work, and solve problems that would otherwise consume enormous amounts of human time.
The most promising future may not be one in which humans prove they’re better than machines at everything.
We aren’t.
It may be one in which machines handle more of the things machines are exceptionally good at so people have more opportunity to do the things humans are exceptionally good at.
Think.
Create.
Explore.
Compete.
Care for one another.
Make things.
Tell stories.
Build relationships.
Take risks.
Fail.
Learn.
Try again.
The Finish Line Still Means Something
Someday a robot may run faster than the fastest human being who ever lived.
Perhaps one will paint an extraordinary picture, compose a symphony, or execute a flawless athletic performance.
Those achievements will tell us something remarkable about engineering.
But when a tired runner crosses a finish line after believing for months that they couldn’t do it, something entirely different has happened.
No world record is required.
No algorithm needs to calculate its significance.
A human being attempted something difficult and succeeded.
And another human being understands why that matters.
That may be one of the most important differences of all.