What are humans good at that computers are not? @internet-class

Uploaded November 2016 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago

To understand how computers complement us, it’s important to compare our capabilities with theirs. Humans still excel at many things that computers struggle with: visual and language processing, high-level planning, decision making. But our most distinctive capabilities are things that may forever lie outside of the realm of even sophisticated artificial intelligence.

Credits: Talking: Geoffrey Challen (Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo). Producing: Greg Bunyea (Undergraduate, Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo).

Part of the internet-class.org online internet course. A blue Systems Research Group (https://blue.cse.buffalo.edu) production.

What are humans good at that computers are not?

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$Overview of a single internet search. Let’s review everything that has to happen for you to perform a single internet search. First, all of the billions of web pages have to be found and processed. That processing has to prepare the search engine to reply to any possible search. Second, the relative importance of various pages has to be established. Search engines use many different factors to determine how to rank results, but at the most basic level some pages are better than others—more reputable or more useful. Finally, the search engine has to receive your search, locate all relevant pages, rank them, and return the results. Amazingly, this entire process happens in a fraction of a second. Credits: Talking: Geoffrey Challen (Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo). Producing: Greg Bunyea (Undergraduate, Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo). Part of the https://www.internet-class.org online internet course. A blue Systems Research Group (https://blue.cse.buffalo.edu) production.$