What We Stay Alive For

 What We Stay Alive For

“Rent” is one of the most famous musicals of all time, dealing with themes such as homosexuality, poverty and raising awareness about AIDS. 

It took Jonathan Larson, the mind behind this project, 7 years to create it and build it up, piece by piece, into a complete product. 

It took an AI chatbot a mere 5-10 seconds to come up with an outline for a musical which covers the same topics.  

But what is the difference between years of gruelling hard work and something created by artificial intelligence? The human touch. 

We live in a time where we consume media at a rapid pace, thus shortening both our attention spans and creativity. It is no surprise that since AI is easy to use, thus it replaces many of the things carried out by actual people in the past. Positions like manufacturing, retail and customer service will soon be filled in by artificial intelligence. And I’m not here to go against this; there is some semblance of logical reasoning in this prediction, as there is increased efficiency and an overall improvement in production. 

However, when it comes to professions such as art, music and writing, a line must be drawn. These are careers catered to feeding the souls of society, not filling up their wallets. Now, because of AI, the careers of these artists are in jeopardy regardless of their talent. Almost any AI chatbot can create an illustration in a matter of seconds, whereas it would have taken hours for a human to do it. But is that not the true reason to be in awe of art? The fact that a person spent so much time to make something of their own. Art is special because people go through an astonishingly difficult process of continuous trial and error, learning and growth to produce raw material.

Humans do not create art to look at something. They do it to present their point of view to the world. 

Humans do not make music to hear something. They do it to convey stories and evoke emotions. 

Humans do not write to simply say something. They do it to discover the meaning of their lives and allow everyone to have a place in the world. 

The slight imperfections in our creations are what makes them authentic and real. If every single work of art produced was considered ‘technically perfect’, then nothing would be special or even recognized as different. Whether or not we choose to lace our artistic works with emotions and feelings, they will still always be present because we are human. We simply cannot help it, and it is due to this that art made by humans is so necessary for society. 

In the end, there is one question we face as human beings: do you want to be remembered for creating something real, or for just pressing a button?