Imperfect Perfection: Why Human Flaws Are Our Superpower in the Age of AI

As we stride towards an age when machines will dominate much of life and work, it’s understandable to question what our place will be. Artificial Intelligence across the digital and physical world will become our provider – producing things, ferrying us about and solving our problems. Importantly, it will be almost infallible. AI isn’t being designed to fail - its defining characteristic is its ability to tackle most tasks better than we can.

What sets us apart is the opposite. We are a flawed and messy species. We carry out tasks badly and articulate things poorly. Revealingly, human-error is a term often used to describe our tendency to get things wrong. I won’t attempt to list the full gamut of human inadequacies - typing fatigue would soon ensue – and will instead focus on exploring why these flaws are important. Because I think our failings (no matter how frustrating, unattractive or detestable) are actually the basis of our secret sauce. Our potential to get-things-wrong is our defining characteristic, and although undesirable on a surface-level, these failings are the perfect counterbalance to the stark efficiency of the machine age.

An Old House

I live in an old cottage in England. The original structure was built in the 1500s – around the time Henry VIII was marching about Hampton Court Palace, and Shakespeare was scribbling away in Stratford. This is not in any way uncommon – the village we live in is crammed full of houses just like ours. And while in some parts of the world it may sound like we live in a visitor attraction, for me it’s a reasonably-priced, rented home.

What makes this house special is its history. I have always obsessed over the past as much as the future – the timelines of society fascinate me. And in many ways, the history of our house is borne out through its flaws. Viewed from the interior or exterior, it’s decidedly wonky - if you place a pen on a table anywhere upstairs, 99% of the time it will end up on the floor. The exposed beams are dented and bruised through age or collision, and each room has different heights, weird dimensions or other imperfections that annoy and surprise. When, for example, you accidentally forget to stoop before you enter the bathroom, you will whack your head on the low beam that sits at just the wrong height above its entrance. And on a bright windy day, you will see shards of sunlight and a whisper of breeze leaking through small holes in the walls.

An architect would never design a house like this today. If they did, people would question their qualifications. And even then it would never get built - the poor layout, restricted access, slanted structure and general lack of integrity breaches every regulation in the book. Its energy efficiency rating alone would lead to planning permission being denied – it is so bad that we likely do more to heat the street outside than we do the interior when we put the heating on. 

The Importance of Flaws

And yet, the flaws in our house give it immense flavour, character and difference – that’s why we live here. And I can say with complete certainty that there is no other house in the world exactly the same. It has aged and been added to over the centuries; patched, adjusted, and modified by hundreds of people. And its charm is a direct result of the eccentricities this has led to. Its imperfections imbue it with a distinct and lovable personality.

The same can be said of us.

As the most intelligent species on Earth, our thinking has seen adjustments over time – patches, fixes and additions to the base structure of our cognitive function. Biological evolution is a long, drawn-out system of trial and error, and the extraordinary minds we have developed are a product of that process. Like an old house, our brains exhibit scars of the past – mechanisms developed for hunting, gathering and protecting ourselves from requirements and threats that no longer exist. These imprints are the root-cause of our anxieties, make us susceptible to depression, and lead to obesity and addiction. They are flaws, plain and simple. But they are also ingredients that result in a diverse and vibrant outcome. Humans.

The Value of Diversity

I firmly believe that diversity is the determining factor in achieving success across most areas of life . . .

• A diverse investment portfolio facilitates overall growth of wealth

• A diverse diet provides a broader range of vitamins, nutrients and minerals

• A diverse network of friends provides a variety of perspectives

• Diverse experiences help us to become more rounded individuals

• Diverse activity & exercise strengthens muscles across our bodies

And the list goes on . . .

One area where the word ‘diversity’ is often used but misunderstood, is when describing humanity. We are rightly told to celebrate it. But do we understand it? I don’t think many appreciate what diversity means in the context of people, and most do not see its vital role moving into the age of coldly efficient machines. 

We naturally focus on positivity when discussing diversity – e.g. ‘a broad range of people bring a diverse range of skills to society’. But in many cases, diversity actually means flaws. Because where someone has skills in a particular area, they also lack skills in another. The same is true of human thought – everybody has biases, negative outlooks and cognitive failings. And it is within this variation of abilities, perspectives, attitudes and actions that I think one of our key strengths lies. 

Optimisation as a Flaw

As stated, machines by their very nature are built to work. They serve a function and have been designed to operate perfectly. Of course, cars go wrong, computers glitch and AI hallucinates. But if you look at any of these tech developments over the course of their history you will note that each one has got better. That’s because they have been optimised by us.

When it comes to the development of machines, optimisation has served us well for centuries. We all want a fridge that maintains an optimal temperature, and wouldn’t put up with a car that broke down every other day. Iterations over time have made these devices as good as they can be. Computers have come to dominate our lives because they don’t really make mistakes, and their existence has enhanced society as a result. But as we progress into a future where artificially intelligent systems will become the backbone of industry, governance and most other areas of life, will we soon find ourselves in a world of abundant optimisation? We will certainly come to coexist with machines that think and act with clinical precision. 

If left unchecked, the intelligence revolution threatens to remove flaws from life in a way that – I think - could be detrimental to society. Yes, we want the very best healthcare, and we of course need economies and governments that work as well as they possibly can. But in other areas of life – art, creativity and expression for example -  we will also need the spice-mix of frailty and a seasoning of errors. This is what injects flavour into our lives.  

Pain = Value

Because we are flawed, we all exist in a state of fluctuating psychological pain; the anguish that comes as a result of being human. As imperfect creatures, we experience the world in diverse ways. Some of us are emotional souls who feel the angst of love, connection and loss deeply, while others glide along with less friction. Some lean on vices such as food or alcohol to smooth the road whereas others cling to religion and beliefs as an antidote to existence. Regardless, our diversity drives our experiences which in turn directs our output. And the myriad differences we have - hard-wired into our psyche - impact what we say and do.

All this is the secret sauce I spoke of earlier - while our flaws can be a burden, they are also an attribute. Importantly, they are things that AI will never experience or exhibit. Unlike us, AI will be continually optimised, with its flaws ironed out and its accuracy enhanced. Our lack of optimisation is our strength, distancing us from machines and enhancing our individuality. The long road of evolution and the limitations of biology have given us this gift. In the same way that I can say with certainty that my house is like no other – you are like no other. Your messy, modified, patched-up brain makes you unique. And as a result, your thoughts are incredibly valuable. 

This means we are able to bring something to the table that machines cannot. And, interestingly, it's something they desperately need. Even now a proportion of our combined experiences, knowledge and perspectives have been processed and distilled into data-sets for training. The complicated muddle of human thinking - milled, measured out and baked into the neural networks of AI. And though efforts have been made to ensure that data is refined to optimally ‘weight’ the decision making of artificial intelligence with as few flaws as possible, our personalities have seeped through to add nuance and flavour to the mix.

Grit in the Machine 

Although AI will never be flawed in the way we are, it needs to learn from human nature - our fragilities and imperfections. This is essential if it is to carry the torch lit millenia ago when we first walked on two legs and began building fires on the plains. If we are to develop synthetic minds that truly reflect life, we must inject some grit into the machine; sand to grind the wheels of perfection, and give a familiar judder to the pistons of being. 

But beyond that, we will each become individual specks of grit in the new machine of society. Our job will be to provide diversity and flawed output to the system. And I think we will come to realise this role as we move forward. In an era that could signal our redundancy, recognising our flaws as strengths will be vital. 

But how will this be borne out? Well, through sharing our varied opinions and perspectives for one. But also through more tangible output, such as creativity and the act of making. Yes, an AI-driven landscape will reduce the requirement for humans to be productive in industry, but it will also highlight the importance of creativity to us as individuals. And each creative act, opinion and productive effort we make will add diversity and nuance to the mix. 

Conclusion

At the start of this piece, I compared the flaws of my house to the flaws of humanity. And I want to finish by crystallising how we can use our limitations productively in the age of artificial intelligence. The existence of AI is making us question our value; forcing us to reassess our place in a world where machines will do much of the heavy lifting. And I think the only way to carve out purpose is to use what machines don’t - will never - have. As a product of biology and evolution, humanity stands as an imperfect design arrived at through trial and error. But our failings can also be our strengths. We must now begin thinking about how we can deploy our unique minds in ways that extend beyond the necessary towards the possible. 

One area in which future value can be derived from our ways-of-thinking is in what it offers to the data-sets AI is trained on. Our often illogical, emotion-driven outlook on the world will benefit AI by teaching it about us, and diversifying its output. In this sense, our contributions to discussion, thinking and perspectives are just as important as they have ever been. In the same way that obsessive cleanliness can impact our immune system, AI data-sets need a bit of dirt too. Their clinical logic needs something to butt up against; the often illogical emotions of humans. Because overly sanitised training data will lead to clinically cold AI. And nobody wants that.

Another, more important value of our minds is the way they give rise to unique, unpredictable outcomes. Human creativity is supported by the foundations of our diversity - individual differences built on flaws and mistakes. As an art lecturer, I have used the term ‘happy accident’ to describe a situation where a student’s error has led to a more successful outcome more times than I can remember. Unexpected mistakes are the basis of many great creations, and the removal of logic from the creative process is something art movements such as the Surrealists used to their advantage. And it is our mastery of creative techniques in the face of human error that makes successful expression - be that art, music or writing - so damned impressive. 

So, as we travel into this new era, remember this. 

You are flawed. 

You are fragile. 

You are unique. 

And these are the things that will make us shine bright in the age of the machines. Celebrate your weaknesses. Applaud your mistakes. Capitalise on being human.