Joan García-Nieto, an activist priest who helped dignify poor neighborhoods, was one of the most influential figures in the history of Baix Llobregat. He used to repeat that “utopias can be fulfilled”. And the words of Manuela Carmena echoed a bit utopian yesterday in the city of father Joan before a more pessimistic and almost dystopian John Carlin, both gathered at the Cornellà Creació forum for a face-to-face with a suggestive title: Intelligence artificial intelligence (AI) and the political lie virus.
“I am not hopeful. Social media has made us idiots. And AI will avoid learning basic things, like knowing a little algebra. We will become more capsigrans and, therefore, weaker to the deceptions and deep fakes that will occur”, said the writer and columnist of La Vanguardia. “You will burden the world!” Pepper, a robot who helped present the event, told him.
“The literacy rates are much higher than a century ago, we are not stupid anymore”, Carmena replied to him on the day of his 80th birthday, before receiving a bouquet of flowers. According to the former mayor of Madrid, AI will put society against the mirror and, by contrast, will serve to value more concepts such as “compassion and empathy”.
Carlin and Carmena agreed to emphasize the importance of the current moment and AI for the changes it can produce politically, socially and economically. “Whenever there is an invention there is a reaction of fear. We are not educated in change. We need a 21st century democracy”, assured Carmena, convinced that new technologies can facilitate citizen participation. “Normal people, who vote, don’t follow politics with interest”, retorted Carlin in a pleasant talk held in the auditorium of Cornellà with the president of Pimec, Antoni Cañete, as master of ceremonies.
