The uncanny valley is the uneasy feeling you get when you look at something that’s not quite human. That is, it almost looks human, but something is off.
If something isn’t meant to look human, then we quickly classify it as non-human. And if something looks perfectly human, then we classify it as human. The gap between these two is the uncanny valley.
For example, we already built robots that look non-human. Soon we’ll go through an awkward part because we won’t be able to create a robot that looks exactly like a human. However as technology progresses, we’ll eventually reach the other side.
I believe we are currently experiencing AI’s uncanny valley.
Today, AI produces things that feel off. It’s not quite human-like yet. But this is just a moment of transition. I believe it won’t be long before we really won’t know who or what produced something.
The question then becomes, what happens then?
The takeaway
I believe AI will help us define our humanity. After it’s taken over everything that’s not human, all that will remain will be us.