The danger is not the humanization of robots but the robotization of humans. We urgently need to address the agenda of the 21st century. We are entering the Fourth Era, and the viability of our societies is at stake.

By Martin Padulla for staffingamericalatina

In recent weeks, announcements related to Artificial Intelligence have multiplied. Investments, impacts, transformations; the speed at which this technology is altering the way we live is at times overwhelming.

Experts are changing their perceptions of what is happening with AI. 96% of them believe that there will be a parity between human intelligence and artificial intelligence before 2040; less than 2 years ago, only half of the experts adhered to this forecast.

The public announcement of the first general artificial intelligence system (current systems are narrow AI) is scheduled for August 17, 2031; less than a year and a half ago, it was predicted to be after 2050.

Ray Kurzweil maintains that in 8 years, nanobots will reverse the aging process, and we will reach the Singularity in 2045. So far, he has been accurate in 86% of his predictions.

At the end of 2022, Elon Musk presented Optimus, a humanoid robot that appeared somewhat clumsy in front of the audience. A few days ago, Optimus reappeared, this time doing yoga with remarkable control over its “body.” Was its initial clumsiness a marketing strategy? Did it learn at this speed?

Mustafa Suleyman co-founded DeepMind in 2010, a company focused on artificial intelligence from its inception. In 4 years, he sold his company to Google. In 2022, he founded Inflection and built a team composed of former DeepMind, Open AI, and Meta employees. He received $1.3 billion from top investors and stated that AI will have the freedom, if granted, to make decisions.

Suleyman suggests that in the development of AI, there are three major waves: the first was Classification, which is identifying and categorizing different types of files such as images, videos, audio, and text, among others. The second is Generation, like ChatGPT, where humans input information, and the algorithm provides us with new information. The third will be Interaction; for Suleyman, conversation will be the interface of the future. Each person will have their own interactive artificial intelligence, which will take care of what we ask. Superintelligent assistants with profound knowledge about each of us.

Interactive artificial intelligence seems to align with the hypothesis of Byron Reese, who suggests that Artificial Intelligence and robots mark the entrance into a Fourth Era. The first was 100,000 years ago with the emergence of fire and language; the second was 10,000 years ago with agriculture and cities; and the third was 5,000 years ago with the wheel, writing, and nation-states. Neither telecommunications nor the internet; the fourth era is AI.

What implications does this have for the world of work? What changes or adaptations do we need to make in the face of the first tool in human history that can make decisions on its own? Will we train and work with the co-piloting of a personal AI? How? How will we prevent inequalities from deepening?

The first thing I would like to establish in this regard is that we still have a lot of power in this dynamic. Considering the unprecedented speed of events, no one can say how long we will have it, so it is very important to use it quickly and wisely. In this sense, I often say that I am much more concerned about human stupidity than artificial intelligence. I am concerned that policymakers rise to the occasion and can establish regulations that create an education system 4.0 and a labor market 4.0, addressing the ethical dilemmas posed by this technological explosion. That they are capable of deepening a social dialogue with a humanistic bias. We have a historic opportunity to build people-centered systems. It is now.

The second, associated with power, has to do with AI regulation. Latin America has a unique opportunity to include essential regulations that modernize the world of work and employability.

Today we know that there are perishable skills, that we need to learn to unlearn to relearn at an unprecedented speed, that we need to do it throughout our lives, that population aging requires us to rethink our pension systems, and that the ethical use of AI requires an inclusive educational system and a labor market that considers diverse forms of work. All of these observations require changes in the foundations of current educational and labor systems.

The flexibility that AI is already providing to the labor market must be accompanied by forms of work that bring formality and dynamism to labor markets that currently show rigidity and informality.

AI demands teaching people to think, to enhance essentially human skills that will allow us to retain control and preserve values.

François Chollet, Software Engineer and AI Researcher at Google, stated, “I used to worry that people didn’t know mathematics; now what really worries me is that people don’t know humanities.”

The countries that best adapt to this metamorphosis will be those that manage to develop relevant talent and establish rules that create a good business environment. Those countries will realize inclusion and can aspire to sustainable development.

The challenge is of enormous significance. The consequences of bad decisions can threaten the viability of our societies.

Thinking and implementing quickly. Reflection and action. A humanistic perspective. The real danger is not the humanization of robots but the robotization of humans.

Humans who are up to this historic moment in humanity are sought.