AI and the return of storytelling

My grandmother is a potter. She makes many beautiful pieces of art, but my favorite are her mugs. Her mugs have her style literally printed all over them. On my favorite mug, there is a little blue bird and a saying; “together is my favorite place to be”. It of course reminds me of her and the wonderful moments spent together, and hopefully many more in the future. But it grounds me into this place where I am, with my beautiful family, and reminds me to smile and be present with them.

I love how the mug makes me feel emotionally, but I also love how it feels in my hand. The little ridges, the differences in thickness on my lips as I take a sip.

Part of what makes the mug so perfect is the fact that it is imperfect.

If the mug were machined and perfect in every dimension, it would just be another mug. But, because it has small dips and drawings and ridges, it reminds me of her hands that have so often held my own. It reminds me of her creative mind that has in part shaped the way I see the world. It reminds me of her intentionality, her freedom, her joy.

It is in the movement found in the imperfection of the mug that the story is found most clearly.

We live in an age where story has been dramatically impacted by the screens, machines, and algorithms that run our life. Our ability to tell stories has defined us as a species. It has been stories that have helped us craft meaning, helped us understand the experiences we have been through. And yet, in this age, meaning has been reduced to likes and follows and story has been diluted to curated posts and trending topics. We write and speak to perform.

But I believe AI will bring us back into an age where storytelling is returned to a place of meaning-making, a place of resonance in the human experience.

The first reason is that as AI writes more content, it is becoming clear that there is a difference in human writing and AI writing. This moment has become a healthy and helpful moment for us as humans to define for ourselves what it is about speech and writing and storytelling that we enjoy so much.

AI is very good at getting the answers. But we humans like stories not just for the answers but for the human connection that happens along the journey of the story. We like stories because in each story we find touchpoint that mirror parts of our own story. We enjoy the journey, the drama, the stuttering and misspelled words.

The stories of AI and human authors are like a manufactured and handmade mug. The manufactured mug may perform the same function, it may be beautiful, and yet there is a soul in the handmade mug not found in the manufactured mug. There is a wrestling in something handmade. Just as there is a wrestling in a human story.

The reclamation of storytelling as a distinctly human art form is defined by our vulnerability, our imagination, our emotions. These are things beyond AI’s grasp.

The internet has prioritized speed and performance over depth, but as AI supersedes our ability to compete in the realm of speed and performance. we humans will return to a deeper form of storytelling. AI will be able to post on social media that captures the viral trend, write the best copy, and understand the algorithm better than we ever could. But we intimately know story, because to tell stories is to be human.

There is a stark contrast between AI and human storytelling that is helping us understand what is human. AI can mimc structure, but only humans can infuse a story with a soul. AI can regurgitate the experiences of others, but a human shares their own lived experience, and this is what makes a story beautiful.

Leave the soulless work to the machines. Go, instead, and live a life worthy of telling. Live your story.

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