The Gaps Make us Human

In Joey Szpilczak’s ’27 otherworldly blue-tinged painting The Water’s Artifice, a teenager surrounded by scattered pages of handwritten notes reaches out to touch a laptop screen transformed into swirling water. The surreal image illustrates Szpilczak’s ideas on navigating AI as a high school student. Inspired by Narcissus’ fatal act of self-admiration as he gazed at his reflection on the smooth surface of a pool of water in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Szpilczak explored the illusory perfection promised by AI.  

This artwork, accompanied by a brief essay (below), was one of 35 submissions from across the globe to win the The New York Times multimedia challenge. The competition asked teenagers to express what it’s like to live in the age of AI through poems, essays, visual art, and multimedia. 

The Water’s Artifice 
"In class this year, as I read Stanley Lambardo’s translation of Ovid’s Echo and Narcissus, I thought of how absurd it seemed for Narcissus to be so enraptured by his own reflection that he died from being unable to look away. However, when I read the line, “What you see is a shadow, / A reflected image, and has nothing of its own,” I realized I had heard this story before.

From what I perceive, the power of artificial intelligence over us is founded on the idea of perfection. Just as Narcissus looks into the water and is captured by a flawless image, we look to AI to fill in the blanks we see in ourselves. However, unlike Narcissus, we do not see only ourselves looking back, but rather a synthesized version of other creatives’ work that is stripped of their nuance and context, an echo chamber that limits our understanding of our own capacity and hinders our need as humans to continue shaping our narratives."

"Narcissus saw perfection which reminds me a lot of what's happening with AI right now,” said Szpilczak. “Kids want to almost have an ideal version of themselves. They don’t want any gaps so they look to AI to fill in those gaps.” 

With many interests, including drawing and writing, as well as the interplay between literature and art, Szpilczak was especially inspired by this multimedia challenge. She wanted to blend modern times through the imagery of the laptop with the lessons of classic mythology and interrogate the similarities that exist between the two eras. Part of what she uncovered and expressed through The Water’s Artifice is the ongoing tension between perfection and humanism.  

“Our gaps are our humanity, and AI takes that away,” she said.