What does it mean to be human? This is a question I’ve never thought to ask because, growing up, I didn’t have to. As a child, my understanding of human nature was simple. Being human looked like my mother’s effortless kindness towards strangers, my dad’s endless curiosity about the world and my brother’s unwavering admiration for me.
As I got older, classes, history books and relationships complicated that picture. In the past few years, the growth of artificial intelligence has forced me to confront humanity’s complexities head-on. The more AI learns to replicate abilities we once considered uniquely human, the more urgently we are forced to ask what being human actually means.
Now that machines can create art, write essays and even act as therapists, one question keeps resurfacing in my mind: What can humans do that AI can’t?
In 2025, Lilly Endowment Inc. donated $50.8 million to the University of Notre Dame to develop the DELTA network, “which will provide practical resources … to help navigate challenges posed by rapidly developing AI.” This network is based on the DELTA initiative, a faith-based ethical framework created by researchers at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. DELTA proposes five human qualities that machines can’t replace: dignity, embodiment, love, transcendence and agency.
Although DELTA’s framework is rooted in Christian beliefs, I’m interested in what these five values can reveal beyond their religious context. They provide a useful framework for my own argument: AI may be able to replicate individual human abilities, but that is not the same as experiencing the full complexity of human existence.
The first DELTA principle, “Dignity,” says that “every human possesses inherent worth,” and that a person’s value is not related to their status or economic productivity. At the ripe age of 19, I’ve spent a lot of time measuring my worth by productivity: aiming for a well-paying job, getting good grades, signing up for extracurriculars that will look good on my resume. I constantly have to remind myself that college is also about discovering what I enjoy, not simply preparing to enter the workforce.
AI doesn’t erase dignity, but it reinforces a culture that rewards scale, speed and efficiency. This has become strikingly apparent in the workplace as companies have begun implementing AI optimization and workforce automation to increase production, creating an unrealistic standard for human production. AI may pressure humans to work harder, but DELTA’s dignity principle reminds us that being human is more than job performance.
“Embodiment” reminds us that humans can have embodied physical experiences, something that AI can only attempt to recreate via bountiful writing or elaborate imagery. When I first saw this word, I recalled times I laughed so hard I could barely catch my breath, or the swell of both pride and relief that filled my chest when I recited my lines perfectly in a school-wide skit, after having rehearsed for days. These fleeting physical experiences are essential to life’s meaning.
As technology continues to capture our attention at both work and at home, it’s easy for these moments of presence to pass us by. AI can generate ideas and information, but it can’t replace the experiences of physical joy, anxiety or exhilaration that make you feel truly alive.
“AI serves to expedite problem-solving processes, and the ups and downs of love are not problems that can be easily solved, nor are they a process to be sped up. Sometimes, the process is in itself the purpose.”
“Love” is the human quality that I identify with most. I feel the most alive, the most human, when I feel love. When I experienced my first love and heartbreak, I felt intensely connected to my emotions, stuck for weeks in an exhausted body and reeling mind — an unfortunate but necessary experience for personal growth. It was because I felt everything so deeply that I was able to pull myself off the couch and find love in new places: in my friends and family, in the strangers I passed on the street and exchanged smiles with, in simple acts of human connection.
AI can imitate empathy, but it doesn’t experience the vulnerability, grief or joy that make love such an intense and important experience. AI serves to expedite problem-solving processes, and the ups and downs of love are not problems that can be easily solved, nor are they a process to be sped up. Sometimes, the process is in itself the purpose.
The “transcendence” quality goes hand-in-hand with love. I interpret transcendence as the ability to experience awe and appreciation. When I view the most ordinary, mundane parts of my life with deep appreciation, I feel like I’m living life the way it’s meant to be lived. While I was recovering from hip surgery during my sophomore year, I began to cherish small moments of joy that I had previously overlooked: a beautiful sunset, a dog rolling around in the sun, an old man reading a newspaper in the park.
I felt this great appreciation for life because instead of searching for a way to feel happy, I slowed down and tried to find the good parts in healing. AI is designed to provide answers, but humans often find meaning in the unknown.
My initial question: What can humans do that AI can’t? The last DELTA value, ”Agency,” seems to offer the clearest answer. Agency is not simply the ability to make a choice, but the ability to choose guided by a distinct worldview and set of values. I’vebeen shaped by the people around me and my personal experiences, leading me to value individuality, diversity and compassion over efficiency.
AI can recommend steps to take, but it doesn’t have an inherent set of values. It simply reflects the goals and instructions built into it by humans. While humans are flawed and capable of making harmful decisions, we are capable of reflecting on our choices and taking accountability. AI can produce a decision based on input, but it cannot truly own that decision. This is why I believe important decisions that require context and empathy, such as in the criminal justice system and the medical field, should remain in the hands of or be thoroughly overlooked by humans— not because humans are always right, but because moral responsibility requires an agent capable of making and owning a choice.
The DELTA framework offers a necessary reminder that being human is defined by connection to one another, to our bodies, to love and to questions larger than ourselves. It is not about finding the most productive and efficient ways to complete tasks, and it is not about immediately finding an answer to a hard question.
In a strange, unexpected way, AI has made me appreciate humanity. It has forced me to confront human contradictions and not ignore them. Humans are imperfect, messy, emotional and often irrational. Yet those very qualities, the beautiful messiness of being human, are what no machine can ever replicate.
Kira Heller ’29 is from Oakland, CA. She keeps a running list in her Notes app of people’s answers to the light, decidedly non-existential question, “What do you think the meaning of life is?”
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