What AI Can Not Do? 4 Things That Still Only Humans Can Do

AI this AI that, for the last 2-3 years has been all about AI talk. No I am not against it, rather I am fond of it as it has simplified in ways I could not even imagine. 

There is an AI for everything and I love that for myself since for most things I do not even have to lift a finger. I want a recipe to cook? I can ask AI. 

I want to get a photo designed? There are AI graphic design tools for that. Life truly has never been easier. 

If I look around, AI has penetrated everywhere, at this point it is so deeply rooted into everything that now it makes me wonder what can AI not do? Is there anything left untouched by AI? 

Well, I am a curious gal, so I got to work and started experimenting with AI tools. Guess what? I found not just one but multiple things AI can’t do and for good! 

4 things AI still can’t do in 2024 [Good for us] 

Most of the following mentioned things are obvious, because at the end of the day we know that a robot can never come at par with a human at least not just yet. Find out what it is that humans are still better at than AI and will be for a long time. 

Absolute decision making 

When it comes to decision making, there are always choices that we need to choose from. Most often these choices are so difficult that we analyze the pros and cons to reach the ultimate decision. Crux is that decision making is difficult, be it small or big. 

If you want to wear a black dress or a red one, it is just as difficult to decide as it is to decide between taking a nap or working. The consequences of both the decisions might differ in intensity, but making a choice is still difficult. 

So when even humans struggle with decision making, how could I not. Now I do not mean that I cannot facilitate your process of decision making, what I am conveying is that it cannot make a sure shot decision for you. 

It might weigh the pros and cons for you and it might as well tell you the decision most people made when they were in your position, but it won’t be able to make the decision for you. The final call will be yours. Also, I believe it is only a good thing because even as per Harvard Business Review, AI is not ready to make decisions for you just yet. 

It needs guidance and supervision because AI is trained on tangible data sets and it cannot take into account the abstract ideas of feelings and emotions. It can only understand what ‘happy’ means literally but it cannot feel what being ‘happy’ is like. 

I tried my best to push the limits of AI and tried to force it to make decisions for me. Turns out at the end of the day it is only ‘artificial’ intelligence. I now, very well know, how to use AI and most importantly for what. 

Creativity and sass is not AI’s strong suit 

“Bipity Bapity Boo - Happy B’day To You” 🎂

If you are wondering what that was then let me help you out. It is my very creative way to wish a blessed birthday to my friends and family. It has become more like my trademark now in social circles since everyone knows that’s my classic way of wishing. 

Anyway, enough about me, let’s come to the next best thing that AI just can't do too. Did you notice how I said ‘my creative way of wishing’ - so what does creativity mean? In literal terms it means making something new just out of your imagination. 

Clearly, AI cannot imagine, so how can it be creative? AI does not have any brains of its own; it gives answers and solutions based on the data set it was trained on. Everything that you get from AI is inspired or learnt from somewhere.

Creativity is very subjective, for instance, to you a creative image might be the one made with modern art practices while I might find it just bland. When you and I look at a painting, we try to take into the account the thoughts the painter must have had and the feelings that they have tried to put into that piece of art. AI just can’t do that. 

It cannot take into account the intangible aspects of creativity that you and I have developed an understanding for by living in the real world, getting experiences, and building our unique perceptions based on that. 

I know this could be overwhelming to understand, so let’s try to get into it with an example.

Consider this, computers were a world revolutionizing invention and they were only beneficial until someone pointed out that - oh hey well you cannot carry it around. That’s when a problem was discovered and then the ideas started following to find a solution. 

One of the ‘creative’ ideas turned out to be laptops. 

Now, ask yourself, if one such problem arises, will generative AI tools be able to provide a solution to me? 

I’d leave you with this thought here and you figure out the answer yourself. 

Offering empathy

Being straight forward - AI cannot offer you empathy. It can talk to you, it can lend you an ear to let your feelings out, it can even find you a solution to the problem but it cannot understand you. 

Being understood is a fundamental need of every human. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as well, we find that love, a sense of belonging, and acceptance is what us humans want in a social setting. All of it comes from understanding the other person and by also being understood. 

AI cannot offer you empathy because it cannot understand you like a fellow peer would. 

“Sorry for the inconvenience caused, we will try to do better next time.” 

You must have talked to many chatbots or other artificially driven customer support solutions and at some point they must have said that they are ‘sorry’. 

But, are they really sorry? Because they understand the meaning of the word in dictionary terms but they do not know what it feels to be sorry. When they don’t feel it, how can they understand you or make you feel validated, and offer empathy? 

A lot to think about there. 

To be fair empathy is an intangible concept that cannot be explained through words. So let’s not count this as a shortcoming for AI, rather consider an achievement for humankind that we are able to understand each other. 👫

Cannot handle the sass! 

If you have read any of my previous articles, or follow my work, then first of all thank you so much! Secondly, you must have noticed that my style of writing is very sassy, at times witty, and sometimes even quirky. Lastly, I am sure you must have loved that because who doesn't love a little fun here and there. 

Well, turns out enjoying sarcasm is a very ‘human’ thing. It is something that humans can do but AI cannot. I was just being friendly with Google’s Gemini and ChatGPT and both of them clearly told me they have no consciousness so they can’t be ‘crazy’. 

They sounded pretty offended to me for being called crazy, but let’s take their word for it. 

Just like they could not understand the friendly nuance of being called crazy, similarly, they cannot understand wit, sarcasm, and cultural slang either. 

It understands what has been fed to it through training, and that is the best it can do for you. Asking for more at this point is just you being greedy. 

Take it easy with AI 🦾

The bottom line is AI is a man made thing and thus it cannot surpass its master. Not just yet. There are a lot of theories that one day AI might take over humans, clearly, today is not that day. 

AI is there to support you, and assist you not replace you. So relax, sit back, and enjoy its assistance. While you are at it, checkout Unrola to see how you can make AI work for you.