Heart and Soul

“Do you have a minute? I want to get your opinion on something.”

She smiled, more to herself than outwardly. Her daughter, a fiercely independent woman, wanted her opinion. An occasion such as this was few and far between. 

“Of course. What’s on your mind?”

“We received a submission for the cover, but it feels weird. I can’t put my finger on it. Something just seems off.”

“Let’s take a look. Did you bring it with you?”

“I did.” The young woman pulled her laptop out of its case and opened it on the kitchen island.

She groaned to herself feeling silly. Why would she think she had a hard copy in a folder or envelope? Of course, it was digital, everything is digital. She was relieved that her daughter didn’t realize the intent of her question. She could do without another eyeroll.

A few clicks later and an image was on the screen. The women leaned in closely to examine it together. At first glance they saw a typical day in the park with children playing, parents mingling, and a lush landscape surrounding them all. Nothing special. 

“Hmm…” She almost said that it was a nice scene, wished she were there, something to that effect. Then she became uncomfortable. In fact, the more she studied it, the more unpleasant she found it. “I see what you mean,” she finally said.

“Right? What’s the deal?” 

“Well, for one thing, the shadows are all wrong. See, this tree is casting a shadow on the right as if the sun is hitting it from the left.” 

“So?”

“So, look, the swings have no shadows under them at all. That’s just wrong.  They should have shadows matching the trees, right?”

The mother and daughter fell silent while they contemplated those facts.

“Also, look at the parents in the background, they are way too big. The perspective is off. If they walked over to the children they would be enormous, towering over the entire swing set like monsters.” She was on a roll now, pinpointing the inconsistencies.

Her daughter looked at the image, tilting her head slightly, a habit originating in childhood when trying to figure something out or solve a puzzle. 

“It’s actually terrible,” she concluded. “Feels like A.I. to me, you know, creepy and disturbing.”

“Mom, you are such a hater of Artificial Intelligence. It’s here to stay, you know.”

Suddenly she became irritated. Her daughter’s endless fascination with the topic was getting on her nerves.

“It’s really not so great you know. People trying to replace themselves with robots. They will never achieve it.”

“That’s not even the point,” She looked at her mother exasperated while closing her laptop. “And it’s pretty close to the human experience at this point. You would be surprised.”

“No, actually you would be surprised. It will never come close. I mean look at this so-called artwork. You even said it feels weird.” She was getting cantankerous and argumentative as this wave of the future was too much for her. Why did everyone have to push the envelope so far? When was enough finally enough?

“True. But going through the short story submissions, the A.I. generated stories are pretty impressive.”

“I doubt that.” Her good mood was totally gone. She had been looking forward to a nice dinner with her daughter not another head to head debate. She stood up quickly and took the salad out of the fridge. She was hungry, maybe a bit hangry.

“Let’s put it to the test.” The young woman said, getting plates and forks out to help set the table. “I agree with you on the artwork, but I bet you won’t be able to tell the difference in the short stories.”

“Oh, I beg to differ. The human’s work will always far exceed anything a computer program has to offer.”

“How about we compare stories, works of fiction, some written by an author, an actual person, some generated by A.I. and we have to figure out which is which. I bet we won’t be able to.”

“You’re on. I accept that bet. Whoever loses has to cook dinner next week.”

“I will come back tomorrow night with the stories, and we shall put it to the test.”

“I can’t wait.” The older woman said it with a bravado, but the doubt was beginning to creep in. What if she was wrong? Would she actually be able to distinguish between the two? She certainly hoped so.

The following night the mother and daughter met again over coffee and cake. They spread out the printed stories on the dining room table for them both to read and then decide which pile to put them in, one pile for human author, another pile for A.I generated. The mother, much to her own dismay, was feeling nervous. It was important to her to make this point although she didn’t know how it would turn out.

The women sat quietly reading their copies of the fictional short stories. Both being avid readers they quickly became absorbed in the tales, forgetting their contentious debate and simply enjoying the evening. After putting down their last page they sat back and looked at each other.

“Well, it is harder to tell than I had anticipated.” The older woman admitted.

“Yes. I agree. I’m not even sure which pile to put these stories in. They were all well written, grammatically correct, interesting. However, I do like some of them a bit more than the rest.”

“Me too. Maybe we should put them in piles of which we really loved compared to those not as much. At least we can start off with that and then see what happens.”

“Good idea.”

The mother and daughter reviewed the works, gave it some quiet consideration, and proceeded to arrange the stories into piles. Interestingly they had similar results, both had the same ones in their most loved section.

“So, now I’m curious.” The mother said, surprised and pleased that they had the same reactions to the stories. “Which were by A.I. and which by a human author?”

The daughter opened her laptop and with a few clicks pulled up a document. She reviewed it and laughed. “The ones we loved the most were written by a new emerging author. We wouldn’t have heard of her most likely but she’s gaining momentum.”

“Ah! So, the human wins over the robot! I knew it!” She beamed with excitement.

The daughter blushed but smiled good naturedly. “So, you were right. But explain it to me. Both stories were wonderful. Why did we gravitate towards the ones that we picked out? I truly enjoyed them all!”

“Well, that’s easy. They have something A.I. will never be able to capture.”

“And that is?”

“Heart and soul.”