4 Facets of Human Communication That Matter in the Age of AI

Last week, I wrote a post about 4 facets of human communication that AI can’t replicate. It was less about comparing AI- and human-generated content, and more of a remark on what it means to be human in the age of AI.

Based on my graduate academic studies, 20+ years of experience as a copywriter, and a lifetime as a writer, I believe it’s these four things that differentiate human communication:

1. How we weave in our individual human experience
2. Communicating with the purpose of building connection and relationship
3. Perspective: Sharing your perspective, and opening up others to a new way of seeing the world
4. The impulse to create emotional resonance

Let’s dig into each facet, one by one, and see what we can uncover …

1. Human experience

In Your Future Self, Hal Hershfield talks about how each of us is not a single being, but rather we are made up of many different “selves” — past, present and future. I think this is an interesting way to encapsulate the idea that we are made up of our experiences — yet we are also more than the sum of those experiences. We are collecting experiences as we are having a human experience.

And like fingerprints or snowflakes, no human experience is the same.

You might be able to tell ChatGPT about an experience you had, and collaborate with the tool to create unique text — but that one experience is just a drop in the ocean of your human experience.

No AI in the world knows what your human experience has been.

No AI in the world could know that when you got that poem published in college, it mended a piece of your heart that was torn in elementary school when that bully won first place in the poetry competition.

You are going to weave your own human experience into everything you write. You can’t help it. It’s what we do. Sometimes you’ll do it on purpose, sometimes unconsciously — but your experience will leak onto the page in a way that AI can’t replicate.

2. Building relationship

I may be in the minority, but I believe that the highest calling of marketing content is to build a relationship between the company and customers. That’s what I seek to do with everything I write for clients, and it’s the core of how I coach and train copywriters and marketers.

I’m not just some idealist, though. And I’m not trying to make marketing into something it’s not. All writing is a conversation between the writer and the reader — and marketing content is no exception to that.

Our purpose in writing is to reach someone.

AI’s purpose in writing is to fulfill its function.

There’s a fundamental difference in purpose, here, obviously — and that’s going to make a difference in the output.

3. Perspective

I love it when a piece of writing helps me see the world in a different way. This is what I like to do for my own readers, as well — give them a different lens to see through.

Gaining perspective is why most readers read — and sharing perspective is why most writers write.

You guessed it: “Perspective” is uniquely human.

That said, you can give AI text generation tools like ChatGPT prompts that tell them to take on a persona. For example, “You are a content marketing expert …“ You can also include an audience in the prompt. For example, “You are a content marketing expert, and your audience is technology marketers.” This helps the tool narrow in on language that is more likely to be what you’re looking for.

But AI doesn’t have perspective of its own. Tools like ChatGPT are built on large language models designed to predict the most likely answer based on the prompts you give them. ChatGPT is giving you data, not perspective.

Perspective is exclusively human.

4. Resonance

Have you ever read a piece of writing that made you cry?

Yes?

Was it written by a human?

Chances are, it was.

It’s unlikely you’d have an emotional response to something written by AI. Not because AI doesn’t write beautiful words — especially since GPT-4 launched, AI can write beautiful words — but because emotional resonance comes from more than the words on the page.

Resonance comes from knowing there’s another human on the other side of those words — a human who has experienced something similar to what you have experienced, who might have a unique perspective on that experience, and who is reaching out through the ether to connect with you, the reader.

Resonance doesn’t come from words on a page — it comes from the meaning behind the words. Meaning that can only manifest through the human touch.

We’re all cyborgs now

As far as I’m concerned, AI isn’t something to love or hate — it’s just part of life, now. It’s one of the many technologies that help us get our jobs done, stay safe, connect with others, and get healthier. Like the implanted defibrillator that keeps my youngest daughter’s heart protected, or the smartwatch that would allow me to find my older daughter if she got lost, or the cell phone in my pocket that connects me with my aging parents and reminds me to take my iron supplement, generative AI is another technology that we’ll incorporate into our lives.

AI will certainly affect how we communicate. But there are facets of human communication that it will never be able to replicate or replace. Communication is fundamental to human relationship and human thriving, and AI can’t do it for us any more than it could fall in love for us.

Think of generative AI like an ingredient. Like sourdough starter. On its own, it can’t do anything helpful — but when you combine it thoughtfully and intentionally with other ingredients, you can make something delicious.

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