At the 44th Annual Hemispheric Congress and Technology Summit, Ms. Teresa Genesin, Director and Founder of Global Genesin, takes us on a journey of reflection and analysis on the opportunities and challenges that artificial intelligence (AI) presents in the contemporary world. This article delves into the key points of her presentation, discussing topics such as manipulation through social media, international cooperation, and designing the future in the age of AI.
44th Annual Hemispheric Congress and Technology Summit: Exploring the Opportunities and Challenges of Artificial Intelligence
Yuval Harari: A Historian of the Future
Yuval Harari, a respected intellectual and best-selling author, is renowned for his ability to analyze the future of humanity. His works span from animals to Homo sapiens, through people and gods, providing a unique insight into the development of civilization and technology.
The Uncertainty of the Path of Artificial Intelligence
AI can have a wonderful future full of potential or an uncertain path, with both bright and dark sides. Everything depends on the actions and decisions made today. Cooperation between free and democratic countries is crucial to prevent manipulation, unprecedented social control, and the emergence of totalitarian states.
Manipulation and Social Control
Countries like China and Japan are already implementing AI technologies, such as chips implanted in children, to detect their emotions and assist in their education. However, there’s a fine line between educational aid and manipulation, and the long-term consequences of these technologies remain unknown.
Designing the Future with Artificial Intelligence
Ms. Teresa Genesin and Natalie Prada, Executive Director of Global, are dedicated to designing the future, and contemplating the possibilities and limitations of AI. Santiago Link 15, an Argentine specialist in future design and technology, also contributes to this debate, highlighting the current lack of knowledge about the future of AI and its implications in society.
Perception of the Future of Work with AI
According to a survey conducted by Santiago, 40% of people believe that several jobs will end in the coming years due to AI, but only 5% believe their jobs will end. This reflects a disconnect between the general perception and individual perception about the impact of AI on the future of work.
Generations and Adaptation to AI
Different generations face distinct challenges and opportunities regarding adapting to AI. While the younger ones are digital natives and easily adapt to new technologies, older generations, like baby boomers, must learn to coexist with digital technology and overcome their limiting beliefs.
Beliefs and the Development of Consciousness
Beliefs are a powerful force that can either limit or enable our development. It’s crucial to be aware of our beliefs and work on them to design our future in the age of AI. The awareness towards the development of consciousness is something humans possess and will not be replaced by any robotic intelligence.
Ms. Teresa Genesin’s presentation at the 44th Annual Hemispheric Congress and Technology Summit invites us to reflect on the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence. From manipulation and social control to designing the future and adapting to different generations, AI is redefining the way we live, work, and relate. It’s our responsibility to make informed and conscious decisions to navigate this new world and build a future where technology and humanity coexist in harmony.
Transcript of the presentation:
“He is not one of the common intellectuals. In the presentation, you will see an image of Yuval Harari. Yuval Harari is a highly respected intellectual in Europe, author of several best-selling books, including one that spans from animals to Homo sapiens, through people and gods. Yuval Harari is a historian of the future, not of the present.
There is no single answer as to what the path of artificial intelligence will be. As my colleagues mentioned earlier, it all depends on the actions and decisions taken. It can be a wonderful and full of potential path or an uncertain one, with lights and shadows. I want to start with a part that has to do with politics.
He also believes, as Einstein said, that it is crucial that in the future, within about ten years, there is cooperation among democratic and free countries. Especially on the subject of artificial intelligence, since there could be possibilities of manipulation, a totalitarian state, or an unprecedented level of social control. In fact, today we know that there are countries like China and Japan that implant chips in primary school children to, according to them, detect their emotions and help them in their education.
However, there is a very fine line between that and manipulation. The consequences are unknown. We dedicate ourselves to designing the future with Natalie Prada, who is the executive director of Global. So, what kind of future are we contemplating regarding artificial intelligence? I brought another author, Santiago Link 15, an Argentine, an economist specialized in future design and technologist. More than ten years ago, he came to Silicon Valley from the United States and fell in love with the possibilities of artificial intelligence. Ten or twelve years later, he became disillusioned and wrote a book explaining why.
Although he finds all the possibilities fascinating, he claims that we know nothing about how the present is. I invite you to read it, but what he says is that we know nothing. We work a lot with people from technology in Argentina and enjoy collaborating with those brains. They are very flexible and open to changes from our point of view, but we know nothing about what is going to happen in a few years. When people say that work is going to end, we don’t know.
What we do know is that change is here. As you said, it came to stay. Artificial intelligence is all over the world, in poor countries, in developing countries, in rich countries it is already there. And we believe that depends on us. But today I want to talk about designing the future. Santiago talks about a survey he conducted and I thought it was very interesting to bring it here.
He asked 5000 people about artificial intelligence and asked them if they believed that jobs as they are now are going to end in the next five or eight years. 40% said yes, they were going to end. Then he asked another question: Do you believe your job is going to end? Only 5% said yes. In the 25% said no, which means that 40% believe that various jobs are going to end in the coming years, but only 5% believe that their own job is going to end.
This revised text should have better clarity, coherence, and grammatical correctness. If you have more specific details or changes you would like to make, please do not hesitate to tell me.
For me, and I know it’s dangerous and even naive to say it, there is still no clear awareness of the developments that artificial intelligence can have. Here is a point that, for me, is central: the manipulation to which we are all subjects in terms of social networks, an inequality like the Pareto Law 80-20.
A small percentage of people who run corporations are the ones who decide the content of devices and the construction of algorithms that the remaining 90% of us use. This brings a differential of information and power. What do you think? Dangerous? It seems important to discuss it before moving on to other topics.
If we don’t discuss it here, where are we going to do it? It’s a topic to delve deeper into even in future meetings. What is that power relationship like today? Unequal? There is a minimal percentage that decides what to do with social networks and the corporations that design algorithms so that we are all day on the screen.
We already know the consequences of being on the screen all day, especially in younger generations. Great paradoxes: never before have we been so connected and, at the same time, so disconnected. At work, two physically present people prefer to send an email to communicate.
We already know what happens. We see families in restaurants where they are together but not connected; each one is with their cell phone. Is that the goal of developing this technology? This raises it in a bilingual way. I just bring perspectives to reflect on the future. The paradoxes are a fantastic world with all the possibilities and people under 30 with a high tendency to depression and anxiety; they are two sides of the same coin.
I come from Argentina, I talk to young people from 5 to 17 years old who are with depression and suicidal tendencies. I’m not saying it’s just because of this, it’s a perspective I want to bring to reflect on the design of the future, and that is everyone’s responsibility. Silvina, who is now 80, 82 years old, argues that we build the future with the actions we decide now.
We have reached the moment of our current life because of the decisions we made before. So, to think about what we want to happen with artificial intelligence and how much we humans are going to lead it, we need to start thinking about it now. For the next ten years. Now let’s go to the positive part. That’s what I wanted to bring. I wanted to talk about ages, but especially about people over 50 years old.
Herman talks about a new adolescence starting at 50 years old. I brought the concept of generations. There is a lot to talk about generations. I chose people who are between 48 and 58 years old, they are Generation X or Gen X and the baby boomers, which are the preceding generations. But if we go back to Generation X, life is now longer.
Let’s go to all the positives of artificial intelligence. We have access to a lot of information, much of it free, of great quality. A 50-year-old person looks like 30, can live 100 years well, and surely more. Why not then? What beliefs do we have about people over 50? We with Natalie work with interdisciplinary intergenerational teams.
How are we going to coexist with centenarian people? They are people 25 years old and younger, millennials like Nati in her 30s and something more, Generation X, who are very well predisposed to technology, their beliefs are friendly because they were born in an era of the internet and are a flexible generation that changes. In fact, for many, 50, as I said before, is starting to live, it’s achieving things they haven’t done in their initial youth and the generation that follows is the one I’m in.
The generation of baby boomers born in the 40s and 50s are analog. We are not digital. Our paradigm is analog.
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That is, here we learn digital, we were not born with digital and that is not a minor issue because if we want to develop projects as we are doing, we need to work with our beliefs, which is our specialty. It’s the vision of the future, we need to know what we believe. On the other hand, she, as a 30-year-old millennial, flows with technology, she doesn’t think about it, she does it, and she tells me: “Nothing happens, if I make a mistake, I try everything and do it again”.
And I, who am analog, need to go slow, I need to understand. So I tell her: “Wait, wait, explain to me”. But if she can’t explain to me because she already did it, that is very important to see, because we have different speeds of thought. Neither better nor worse as far as digital is concerned. And the younger they are, the more they fly with their heads.
How to learn to coexist in order to continue developing? Look at the next office I chose. These would be the baby boomers eager to continue, to project, to change, to achieve things, and to continue working. Because what we want the most, to start closing, is to get to this.
These are people from 80 to 100 years old, with all the wisdom, with all the splendor, with all the power. And this is the place we can get to the extent that we believe we can get there. I don’t know if you know it or not, but I come from Argentina, I chose Marta Minujín, a great plastic artist. She is 83, 84 years old and you have to look her up on Google.
Graciela Borges, 82 years old, actress; Edith Tejer, a psychologist who is 94 years old, who was in the concentration camps and came here with her husband to the United States, developed a brilliant psychology career and at this age continues to be active as you see her now; this American businesswoman, Isabel, is dedicated to developing her vision of what magazine cover model there is at 100 years or 101.
“The only one who had fulfilled his role and has since passed away, but who worked until the very end, was Berger Viña, aged 84. He worked with great vitality almost until he was 84. A psychologist who contributed significantly, he created a magazine called ‘Constellations’. This would be the future we would like to see happen, but to achieve that, we need to work with our minds. And now, I give the floor to…
Thank you. We approach again.
What about experience? Is that our foundation? Belief is an incredibly powerful force that we people have.
Thank you. We have limiting beliefs and enabling beliefs. Other limiting beliefs will keep us where we are, they won’t help us reach our goals, and enabling beliefs that will allow us to reach them and will enable what Prince Alexander said about you, these beliefs, because everything is based on a belief. If we believe, we can create what we want, but if we don’t believe, it will remain a dream or an idea. So our idea and our proposal is to start being more aware of what we believe and what we want to believe, because that is what we base ourselves on and how we design our future.
Therefore, if you allow me one last thing to conclude, here is something said by Yuval Harari. I return to him and would like to say, in closing, that digital intelligence will continue to grow, both digital intelligence and artificial intelligence will be everywhere, in military strategy, in education, in health. But there is something that humans have that will not be replaced by any robotic intelligence.
It’s the consciousness towards the development of consciousness. It remains solely human, like curiosity, and that is really something to celebrate because it is very hopeful. Thank you very much.”