Why AI Can Never Make Humans Obsolete

This article is part of series of Nautilus interviews with artists, you can read the rest here.

Angie Wang is a Los Angeles-based artist who has thought a lot about AI, and even more about what it means to be a human. Her illustrated essay for The New Yorker titled “Is My Toddler a Stochastic Parrot?” explores the similarities and differences between haphazard human development and the advance of large language models. It was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Illustrated Reporting and Commentary.

Wang’s work celebrates the ineffable and often messy aspects of the human condition in bold colors. That’s one reason she was the perfect choice to illustrate the cover of Nautilus’ Rebel Issue. We recently spoke to her about her creative process, artificial intelligence and art, and the future of human expression.

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