Letters

Artificial intelligence is not human. It cannot love, like, hate, feel jealousy, pain, loss, feel being touched, have a conscience, guilt, or empathy. Period.

It is a machine that works with information (data) through an algorithm. AI can come up with an answer based on data that has been fed into it. But AI cannot come up with an answer or creativity that comes from a heart or a soul.

AI is a great tool. Think of AI as a passive collaborator that can assist in providing algorithmic based information for our creativity. Similar to a thesaurus that gives a writer a possible array of word options, AI can act as a useful collaborator to supply an array of options for the task posed to it by a user.

Also, think of AI as a mirror. A mirror shows only a reflection of the person looking at it. The reflection is an identical reversed visual representation of the person looking at it. But, like AI, the actual reflection cannot love, like, hate, feel jealousy, pain, loss, feel being touched, have a conscience, guilt, or empathy even though what we see in the mirror looks exactly like the person in front of it.

Yes, AI can spit out what appears to be creative variation content based on its inputted algorithmic data on Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” But let’s see if AI can create on its own that immortal line from, “When Harry Met Sally”: “I’ll have what she’s having.”

Bruce Mermelstein

Southampton