Joshua Rothman on Why Human Connection—Not AI—Is the Heart of Culture

Artificial intelligence may be reshaping movies, music, and podcasts, but what happens when the human element that makes culture meaningful starts to disappear? That’s the question Cory Corrine posed to Joshua Rothman, staff writer at The New Yorker.

Rothman has been exploring what he calls one of the defining cultural questions of our time: how much of the art we consume will come from humans, and how much from machines? His curiosity is not rooted in technical jargon but in something more universal—the way we connect through culture.

“The big thesis of the piece is that culture is about people,” he explains on The Intersect with Cory Corrine. “What we value when we read, or listen to, or watch, is actually human beings. And so I worry that AI technology is going to replace the people behind our cultural life.”

AI and the question of cultural value

Rothman frames the issue by breaking culture into two parts: the products we consume and the lives of the people who create them. As he puts it, “Another side of culture is cultural life, the idea we have that when we read a novel, there’s a person behind the novel like a writer, and they’re cool and they live in some cool place, and they live a literary life. It’s the idea that when we listen to a song, there’s a musician and they live the life of a musician.”

That link—between product and person—has always been automatic for human beings, and it’s at the heart of every artistic movement, from the New Romantic literary geniuses to the grunge gods of the 1990s.

But Rothman warns that when an algorithm can compose songs or scripts on demand, the audience is left wondering if there’s anyone honest at the other end.

Creativity versus automation

The episode doesn’t frame AI as all doom and gloom. Rothman shares how some creators use AI as a tool rather than a replacement. He mentions AI or Die, a sketch comedy project made with generative tools but grounded in human creativity.

The key distinction? “Within the world of AI stuff, there’s going to be a range where some of it is art and some of it is slop.” The difference, he argues, comes down to how much genuine human vision is behind the final product.

Why collaboration still matters

When Corrine presses him on the growing buzz around “AI collaborators,” Rothman is clear in his perspective. “That tension comes from us being real human beings with actual tastes and lives,” he says. “AI can’t do that because it doesn’t have a life, it’s not alive, and it doesn’t have any point of view.”

True collaboration, whether in a writer’s room or in everyday life, requires clashing perspectives and unique lived experiences. That’s something no machine can mimic.

The hunger for what’s real

Another striking part of the conversation is Rothman’s take on “dead internet theory,” the unsettling idea that much of what we see online could already be AI-generated. That realization, however, doesn’t lead him to despair. Instead, it makes him crave more authenticity.

“It will get thinner,” he says of human-made content. “It’s all going make me a little hungrier for real people, for some sort of proof that a real person makes this.”

Why originality still belongs to humans

When Corrine asks about originality, Rothman ties it back to lived experience. “The real source of originality is reality,” he says. “The reason why there are new stories to tell is because new and crazy stuff keeps happening in real life.”

In other words, AI can remix existing content. Still, it can’t live a life, experience heartbreak, or stumble into the strange and unexpected moments that inspire new art.

The Intersect with Cory Corrine doesn’t hand down a verdict on AI—it asks us to sit with the tension. Yes, AI can make our cultural lives more convenient, and maybe even more personalized. But as Rothman reminds us, culture is about connection. And the one thing no algorithm can generate is the messy, unpredictable, and profoundly human bond that gives art its meaning.

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