“ Whatever you do, it is very possible that in a short time artificial intelligence will also reach your environment. And when this happens, the best thing is to be prepared ”. This phrase is pronounced by the author of the book ‘Artificial Intelligence, 101 things you should know today about our future’, with which we have talked about the technology that is going to transform the world. It’s called Lasse Rouhiainen. He is Finnish, but based in Alicante, from where he develops different projects in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and online education.
“ Artificial intelligence ”, he tells us, “ I have realized when writing this book, it impacts everything, even Journalism ”. But as Rouhiainen also points out, we are still not able to understand its true impact, and that is why we must be very careful since we are facing a technology that is going to change the entire Society. Governments therefore have to take action on the matter. As in Finland, where its Executive has published several reports, including one exclusively devoted to Ethics. “ It will be this detail, that of Ethics, which will give a competitive advantage to the country that applies it. In my country, for example, there is a Minister for AI, which shows the seriousness and importance that the Finnish Administration has on this technological development ”.
Also in China, Lasse Rouhiainen tells us, they take the development of artificial intelligence very seriously. There, for example, in schools students are monitored with facial recognition cameras to recognize their expressions and that teachers have information about which students process subjects better or worse. “ Although parents are not asked for permission to do so, and that is why in Europe we must learn to be careful with these types of issues. In Finland, in the school where I am, there are classes with computer vision to analyze the expressions of the students. And the good thing is that everything is recorded on a memory stick, with the students’ permission, and it is given to them so that they are the owners ”.
That machines can one day do by themselves something that people do not tell them, apart from the ethical problem that this represents, our interviewee finds it very far away. More Science Fiction than anything else, despite the fact that there are other experts who see it closer, even for it to happen in the second half of this century. “ Right now I think AI is dumb. He knows how to do only one thing very well, and he always needs a human being to tell him what to do ”.
Training and sharing more information with all audiences is vital so that people on the street do not think or see negative connotations whenever artificial intelligence is discussed. ” Many movies have done a lot of damage, because technology has always been used in movies to kill people .” That’s why there are many people, Rouhiainen tells us, who think that AI needs to be renamed, to talk more about data science or digitization. ” Surely no one would fear them if they were called this way .”
France and Germany are European countries that are betting very strongly on artificial intelligence and education in this field. The latter recently announced an investment of more than 3,000 million euros in this area. And in Finland, for example, the University will soon become an online and continuous education platform only. Spain should learn from these countries and ” pay attention to the opinion of experts such as Nuria Oliver and Andrés Pedreño who are doing a great job in promoting STEM Education, Science, Technology and Mathematics , and intelligence artificial ”.
If we don’t, Spain and other countries may be left behind and the digital divide widen. “It is necessary to avoid that only a few are capable of manufacturing robots so that many others buy them and become impoverished. Although I also believe that there should be more cooperation between countries, and less competition, to automate routine tasks and share specialized tasks since soon there will be many of them that will not be able to be covered due to lack of qualified workers ”.
Health and Education are the two areas where the big brains of artificial intelligence should put all their focus, explains Lasse Rouhiainen. Also in repetitive tasks. And why not in Journalism? “ I understand that it can first be used to write information about soccer results. You can train a machine to write chronicles of 10,000 football matches. And I also understand that as algorithms are becoming more complex, they can be used for this profession. But we must also use it to promote quality journalism and avoid false news or fake news. Facebook has allowed the spread of fake news, and I think there is a great challenge with AI and Journalism to verify that the sources are correct and algorithms can be used to write true news ”.
We end the interview with a question about the future of AI and Information: Do you think that in the future a journalist will be able to win a Pulitzer using a journalist robot? Lasse Rouhiainen’s response, “ sure yes. I would love it ”.
