World News

A Reminder of What it Means to be Human

By Abby Mullarney ‘27 in Fall 2025

“Which one is AI?” the Instagram Reel asked me. After a long day of school, I had opened Reels, per routine, to help myself relax. However, the Reel in front of me quickly caught my full attention: two changing clips on top of each other, one of them being a real video and the other being AI-generated. For a full minute, the Reel had me analyzing every detail of each clip, closely observing the colors, the movements, any possible glitch that exposed its artificiality. But I soon realized that I could not distinguish where reality ended and where imitation began. 

I was able to correctly distinguish between what was real and what was AI for seven clips, but had failed to come to a conclusion for the final three. I watched the Reel again, this time asking myself: what indicates that something is real or AI-generated?

The first clips compared the seemingly same footage of a chef throwing wontons into a boiling pot. The AI dumplings, warm and plump, perfectly fell into even places in the pot despite being tossed. The real dumplings, each with their unique folds, chaotically splashed into the pot, their positions randomized and unpredictable. 

After several watches of the same Reel, I had learned the difference between humanity and artifice. A hallmark flaw about the AI videos was actually the fact that it completely lacked flaws: every movement was fluid, every color was vibrant, and everything seemed to be in its perfect place, as if their positions were rehearsed prior. But after a while, their perfection was notably eerie; unnatural. The real-life videos were recognizable for their overall chaos: the wontons bobbed around the pot randomly, while some sank to the bottom or popped open. Unlike the AI wontons, the real dumplings lacked the same artificial glossiness and vibrance. 

We recognize reality for its chaos, unpredictability, and lack of perfection when compared to its seemingly flawless, calculated, and vivid AI counterparts. In a time when AI roots deeper into our everyday lives, it’s easy to rely on AI’s unwavering perfection to eliminate our human error. Sometimes, we may even compare ourselves to AI, insecure about whether its excellence will steal our own seats in our futures. But what happens when AI fully takes over our human effort? In a society where perfection becomes the standard, our human authenticity is replaced with a tireless pursuit for flawlessness. There is no space left for human mistake, but neither is there space left for human authenticity. Artificial intelligence, wherever we see it, is a reminder that to be human means not to be perfect, but rather, to be beautifully flawed.