“In artificial intelligence we have advanced ten years in one,” says Montse Guardia, director of Strategy and director of the society area of the Mobile World Capital Barcelona (MWCapital). In times of accelerated change and innovations that rapidly affect people, the Digital Future Society (DFS), the initiative created by this foundation together with the Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, seeks to reflect on the ethical and social impact of technological metamorphosis. In tandem, DFS wants to transcend the strictly reflective framework with “empirical and experimental collaborative work, learning by trying and doing,” says Guardia. The aim is to mitigate the negative impacts of new technologies on society and to strengthen the positive ones.
For this purpose, they run a social innovation lab and every quarter they define a deliverable, such as the publication of valuable analytical reports showing tangible proposals. “Society still has fears about technology. But we must embrace this relationship and drive digital inclusion,” says Guardia. “In Barcelona we know what we are talking about when we talk about innovation,” she asserts.
During MWC, on March 1st, DFS is organizing a forum with fourteen expert speakers, eight of whom are local voices of excellence “recognized worldwide in their areas of expertise.” For three hours, they will reflect on “the design, construction and use of technological innovations of the 21st century”. Everything will start with an inspirational speech by the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, Carme Artigas.
From there, three round tables will be held at the summit. The first will tackle neurotechnologies and their role in the new digital reality, covering the relationship between humans and machines and the digital divide. One of the speakers is Rafael Yuste, neurologist, and professor at Columbia University. Also present will be Ana Maiques, researcher and executive director of Neuroelectronics.
The second topic to be discussed is ethical approaches to immersive realities, analyzing innovations such as the metaverse. Experts such as the philosopher Carissa Véliz, associate professor at Oxford University, and Monica Taher, an entrepreneur who promotes financial inclusion, will participate.
The third round table will focus on the relationship between the technological revolution and the planet, the ecosystem, people, and other living beings. Profiles including Guillermo MartÃnez Gaunas-Vivas, head of Ayúdame3D, an organization that has distributed 3D printed arms to make life easier for people with disabilities around the world; and Christopher Fabian, a technologist who works for UNICEF, will participate “We want to show how technology can improve the planet,” says Montse Guardia. She believes that “the ecological and the digital transition are twins”.
During the summit, DFS will also showcase a selection of its programs. “The 1,000 people who will visit us will learn about our impact,” says Montse Guardia. “We want to define a before and an after, to promote critical thinking,” she explains. For her, there is currently a “step change” and the work must be “accelerated” so that the changes are incorporated with a positive result from a social standpoint.
In this sense, one of today’s main areas of study is artificial intelligence due to the seismic leap it is making. One of the best-known examples of these advances is ChatGPT. “The purpose of DFS is to analyze these changes on an ethical level,” concludes MWCapital’s Director of Strategy.
In her eyes, the main challenge today is to fight for “digital inclusion” so that “we all benefit from the same space”. How can this be achieved? For Guardia the only way is by “conjugating the verb to collaborate”. “Sometimes it is complex,” she acknowledges. According to her, one of the keys lies in the collaboration between public and private institutions, as well as in the capacity to scale the solutions devised to be able to reach many people. The objective of the DFS is also “goal-oriented”, seeking a pragmatic outcome to the entire reflection process.
