Solipsism, AI, and the Future of Empathy

by Addison Brodi

Art at its best possesses a defamiliarizing quality that allows us to experience the world from new and different perspectives.

It can act as a conversation between its creator and its audience, but what happens when there is no creator?  What happens where there is no human perspective to be experienced?  What happens when art becomes devoid of intersubjectivity?

As the 2020s continue to introduce new developments in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) art, video, and writing, we stray further from the very things that tie us humans together and fall deeper into echo chambers of solipsism.  To explore this topic more, we just first define defamiliarization and solipsism.

Defamiliarization is a term that was first used in 1917 by the Russian formalist Viktor Shklovsky.  In his essay "Art, as Device," he posited: "The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known.  The technique of art is to make objects 'unfamiliar,' to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged."

This idea of perception is a fundamentally human one and is crucial to our understanding of the world and the inhabitants of it.

In short, the way we perceive things, specifically the way we perceive things outside of ourselves, is what helps us empathize with others.  When we read a book, listen to a song, watch a movie, or study a piece of art, we are engaging in an active back-and-forth with the human who created it.  Solipsism, on the other hand, is defined philosophically by the Oxford English Dictionary as: "The view or theory that self is the only object of real knowledge or the only thing really existent."  It is a selfish way of viewing the world where one cannot see beyond themself.  This line of self-centered thinking has grown more and more common over the past few decades, due in part to the rise of social media, and I fear it will only grow worse.

With the release of Runway Research Gen-1 and Gen-2 video-to-video and text-to-video generative AI systems, we grow closer to a world where one can produce their own entertainment and art for their viewing pleasure in mere seconds.

On the surface, this seems like no more than a novel concept, but it holds deeper implications.  If art is a conversation between the artist and the audience, what happens when you cut out the middleman?  Whose perspective are you to empathize with but yours alone?  You would be in a constant circular conversation with yourself and your own ideas, your own perspective.

Let's say, hypothetically, there is a future where one can create a fully fledged film with a single prompt.  Dialogue, actors, cinematography, a score... it's all there.  When one watches this film that they and they alone have ostensibly created, what new or challenging perspective is to be gleaned from it?  Would it not just be a reflection of one's own self?  In an era where humans pursue convenience above all else, who is to say, if this hypothetical technology were to become a reality, this would not become the made mode of entertainment?

This all might seem like bleak speculation, but the questions beg to be asked.  We are living in a bold new frontier where the future is more uncertain than ever, and we have already seen several examples of how AI has disrupted many of the foundations of our world.  From ChatGPT's threat to our education system to the sale of fraudulent AI art, we are experiencing a new era of creativity, and quite frankly it's awe inspiringly terrifying.  If we are not careful, we could experience the full upheaval of the humanities that help us shape our view of the world; we would be completely consumed by solipsism.

In 2021, the Minneapolis Institute of Art interviewed Terry Wu, PhD, neuroscientist and founder of "Why The Brain Follows" about the connection between art and empathy.  He had this to say: "Art can be a powerful way for us to gain a better understanding of human emotions and stories.  It gives us a unique lens to look at artists' inner worlds.  It trains our brains to slow down and think more rationally, instead of emotionally.  It restores our capacity to connect with others.  Art plays a unique role in reestablishing humanity in this technology-dominated world."

This reestablishment of humanity is what makes art so important and what makes the concept of art created solely for and by oneself so scary.  Art is a gateway into another person's soul.  It is a way to connect with their innermost longings, fears, insecurities, joys, and ambitions.  It is what grants us the ability to empathize with the stranger walking their dog across the street, the man on the news who just lost his family, or any other vague human experience.

Art's transformative and defamiliarizing quality is the essence of humanity.  It is what keeps us from falling headfirst into a world of pure unadulterated solipsism.  In a sense, the continuous engagement and discourse with our fellow man is the core of who we are.  Our perception of others influences our perception of ourselves and can help us find peace in this very confusing world.

As nihilistic as this article may come off, we should have hope for humanity.  There is no certainty that anything I've predicted will happen, but we must remain cautiously optimistic in the face of the many changes occurring in our world.  We must think critically and carefully about how we use AI and how it affects us both culturally and psychologically.  If we allow ourselves to consume only what we create, we end up living in a personal prison of never ending self-reflexivity and isolation.  To consume and analyze art and media is to welcome in a new pair of eyes from which to view the world.

Humans are social animals and we need true and sincere connection with one another to live, to truly live, and not just merely survive.  The vast majority of occurrences in our day-to-day are trivial and mundane, but they don't have to be.

When we absorb the perspectives of others, the world can take on a whole new meaning.  You can connect the dots of the hundreds of lives going on around you and see the stories that lie behind a stranger's eyes.  I hope with the highest of hopes that humans can get their act together and get out of their personal bubbles and learn to truly connect with one another.  This is a sincere dream of mine, but I can't help but fear that sentiment is slipping away.  Maybe everything will work, maybe it won't, but for now all we can do is attempt to connect.