The Human Race

“The lyric ‘Are we human or are we dancer?’ from The Killers’ song Human poses a question about free will versus conformity, suggesting that people are either truly individuals with consciousness and choice (‘human’) or are just following societal expectations and performing actions without genuine autonomy, like actors in a predetermined performance (‘dancer’). The phrase was inspired by a disparaging comment from Hunter S. Thompson, who said America was ‘raising a generation of dancers, afraid to take one step out of line.'” It’s notable that I got that description of the meaning of a song questioning our humanity from machine-powered AI. I searched for the lyrics, hoping for a link to the song, but the first result was from AI. I guess that makes me a dancer? Oddly, we’re living in an age when humans are questioning their humanity as machines are being coded to act more and more like humans. In WaPo (Gift Article), Dana Milbank decided to ask a chatbot: How do I regain my humanity “The longer I spent engaging with AI engines, the more I could see them masquerading as human confidants, flattering me and appealing to my human need to be seen and heard, while luring me away from connections with actual humans. I could see why lonely people are falling in love with their chatbots, why vulnerable teenagers might be driven by a chatbot to self-harm.” I asked a machine how to be more human. It was dehumanizing. “Of all the AI engines I asked how I could become more human — ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta AI, Grok and Claude — not one of them came up with what would seem to be the most obvious solution: Stop asking computers how I can become more human. Uniformly, the chatbots would not own up to the harm their creators have done.” Not taking responsibility for damage that’s been done? That actually sounds all too human.

+ So who will win the race between machines trying to be more human and humans trying to retain their humanity? Well, the humans have had a hell of a long head start. But the machines have a hell of a lot more funding. Derek Thompson: This Is How the AI Bubble Will Pop. “Tech companies are projected to spend about $400 billion this year on infrastructure to train and operate AI models. By nominal dollar sums, that is more than any group of firms has ever spent to do just about anything.”