{"slug": "ai-cannot-desire", "title": "AI Cannot Desire", "summary": "Artificial intelligence can plan and execute tasks but lacks the capacity for desire, values, or personal taste, according to a recent analysis. The author argues that human desire—the ability to want specific outcomes based on cultivated values—remains a uniquely human trait that AI cannot replicate. This distinction means humans must clearly communicate their desires to AI, as the technology cannot independently pursue goals or aesthetic preferences.", "body_md": "*(FWIW to you, dear reader, I did not use AI when writing this article)*\n\nAI cannot desire. It can plan, and it can execute, but it cannot desire. If you desire X, you can use AI to come up with a plan to get X, and depending on the task, AI can execute parts or even all of the plan. But AI cannot *want* X.\n\nAI can plan an app and can build one, but it cannot want the app to be user-friendly/fast/follow a certain aesthetic/etc. *You* can want it to be all of those things, and if you do, you must tell it to plan for those things, because it cannot want to achieve them itself.\n\nWhat am I getting at here? AI is getting very good. I ask myself: What is becoming less valuable because AI can do it better/faster/cheaper than humans, and more importantly, what *can't* it do better/faster/cheaper than humans? I think the answer is desire. AI cannot desire. Some people have said that *taste* is what we bring to the table. I don't think that's wrong, I just think it's a downstream effect of desire. One has taste because they know what to look for, they have *values*, and they desire that the thing they're evaluating has lives up to those values.\n\nYou get out what you put in. If you don't tell AI what to do, it will not think of it for you. It's not like asking a human to build or write something, because a human has its own goals, motivations, values, experiences, and ends.\n\nGet good at communicating your desires in writing. Cultivate your values. Learn to express them. It is one thing to have taste and values, it is another to be able to be able to express them in words. [Criticism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism) is valuable.\n\n| Date | Revision |\n|---|---|\n| 2026-06-11 | Initial revision |", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-cannot-desire", "canonical_source": "https://www.troywolters.com/blog/ai-cannot-desire.html", "published_at": "2026-06-12 01:19:23+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-12 01:46:53.678049+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-ethics", "generative-ai", "ai-agents", "ai-tools"], "entities": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-cannot-desire", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-cannot-desire.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-cannot-desire.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-cannot-desire.jsonld"}}