What is Liberal Arts in the Age of AI?

In the age of AI, images, music, and text can be obtained with ease,
at a level of perfection beyond what one could have imagined.
Moreover, they grasp our preferences and values,

returning the 'perfect answer.'
It is convenient, comfortable, and intelligent.
Yet, at the same time, it is somewhat unsettling.

What was once called liberal arts,
in many cases,

was something not immediately understood.
Natsume Soseki's prose is circuitous,
and Yasujiro Ozu's films are too quiet.

The meaning is unclear, and no conclusion is presented.
Even so, people would endure that lack of understanding,
reading and watching repeatedly,

letting it sink into themselves little by little.
Liberal arts may not have been about the quantity of knowledge,
but an attitude of receiving things over time.

AI removes that 'time' and 'resistance'.
It summarizes, explains, and tells you, 'Here is the point.'

Understanding becomes faster. But understanding becomes lighter.
You feel like you understand, but it does not remain in your body.

When AI becomes a mirror reflecting your own values,
input to the brain

becomes increasingly optimized to your own tastes.
Stories that do not hurt.
Conclusions that do not lead to hesitation.

Emotions that are easily satisfied.
In that space,
it is difficult for foreign objects that shake you to enter.

So, what will happen to the masterpieces of the past?
They will likely not disappear. However, their treatment will change.

For many people,
masterpieces will not be 'things to be read,' but

'names one should know.'
On the other hand, for those who dare to engage with the difficult,
and place themselves in a state of not understanding,

works of the past
will become deeper and heavier than ever before.
Liberal arts will not be something shared by everyone,
but something one chooses for oneself.

Liberal arts in the age of AI is not about what you know.
Nor is it about how efficiently you can understand.

It is, perhaps,
the ability to stand still before what you do not understand,

the refusal to demand immediate answers,
and the awareness of where your own understanding stops.
It is that very attitude itself.
A future where understanding cannot reach,
and a future where understanding reaches too far and becomes thin.

As both of these progress simultaneously,
liberal arts will remain not as 'knowledge,' but as a stance.

The power to keep thinking while not understanding.
The courage to take a step back from overly comfortable understanding.

That may be the quietest form of liberal arts
that humans can possess in the age of AI.