Intervention at the Pío Tamayo Chair of the UCV on July 14, 2025 - Theme: From natural to artificial intelligence
I thank once again the Pío Tamayo Chair and Professor Agustín Blanco Muñoz for the invitation and the opportunity to reflect on transcendental topics such as the one that brings together all of us present today.
In this time of profound changes in the world, I must appreciate that someone in our university begins to address the issue of Artificial Intelligence beyond the technical phenomenon in which it is constituted, trying to seek answers to questions aimed at sincere the impacts that this new technology has, and even more, will have in our lives in the very near future.
Because it is not about analyzing a phenomenon that is far away, but that is already among us, and whose manifestations we are seeing every day through social networks, influencing right now our daily decisions; and its effects are spreading faster than any other technology that humanity has experienced, so Venezuelans should have been discussing this topic for a long time, because it is precisely a technology capable of determining the course of how things are done and how they will be done in our society.
A personal anecdote to illustrate the point. A few days ago, during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Computer Science School of the UCV, in a panel of graduates of the first generations of the School, I told the audience that 53 years ago when I told my parents that I would study Computer Science at the Faculty of Sciences of the UCV, they told me that I had gone crazy. At that time, people studied only the traditional careers: Engineering (there was no Computer Engineering at that time), Medicine, Law, Architecture, Dentistry, etc. Not even the Faculty of Science had its own campus at UCV.
My father, an individual educated by people of the 19th century, with a PhD in Military Law, was unable to understand what I studied until I graduated, avoiding any conversation with me about the subject. What I failed to say at the graduates' panel was that I finally reconciled with him when one fine day he introduced me to the Director of Scientific and Technological Information of CONICIT, the National Council of Scientific and Technological Information, which at that time required a technical specialist in Computers and Telecommunications. And after what we did there, he finally understood the importance of what I had studied.
It was in that place where I had the honor of participating in the beginning of the Automated Service of Scientific and Technological Information Project, SAICYT of CONICIT, which later gave life to REACCIUN, the interconnected National University Network, precursor of the current Internet in Venezuela, whose national service continued at CANTV with equipment and IP technology transferred to them from that network (you can read the complete story in Spanish at El Señor Filosa, in https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/2011/09/el-senor-filosa.html).
That personal anecdote with the Internet in Venezuela, lands me in the reality of how the birth of a new technology such as Artificial Intelligence, AI, can and will have a major social and political impact in our country, even without most people realizing it.
This leads me to try to give an answer to the questions of the Chair that begin with “Are we heading towards a world of man, society, history and knowledge marked and determined by the artificial?” (see in Spanish, Historia Actual, Cátedra Pío Tamayo, De la inteligencia natural a la artificial, in http://historiactual.blogspot.com/2025/07/de-la-inteligencia-natural-la-artificial.html). The first thing to point out here is that any response from a machine - so far - is by no means artificial. The responses of an AI model are an initial product of humans, and that through its interaction with them, these responses become increasingly refined through the process of “training” and extending the knowledge base on which the AI acts.
The natural development of information technology, which includes faster machines, with vastly increased data storage, graphic processing and communication capacity, but more importantly, drastic and exponential improvements in computational languages and retrieval of stored information, has naturally resulted in the phenomenon of Artificial Intelligence, AI. In other words, it opened up the possibility of programming models, no longer just to give a linear input-output-processing result as a consequence of a set of data, but to learn from human interaction with the outside world.
It could not, in my opinion, be said that we are moving towards a world marked by the artificial, as long as man controls its creation. However, the extension of technology could provoke the distortions that we have already seen with other advances that in the past have been used, like any tool, to the detriment of society to the extent that they have been made accessible to all people. In other words, what we are talking about here is the proliferation of AI equipment and models for any type of application, as technology has become more sophisticated, giving rise to the same fears that existed with the advent of computers and their various applications.
To the question “Is AI born spontaneously, a find along the way or as a project with high and growing investments aimed at achieving the best results or dividends?” AI is the product of an unstoppable technological process by no means spontaneous. Perhaps the first models were the product of high return investments like ChatGPT, given the pre-existence of the technical constructs needed to program them, but by no means as something premeditated, because it is not possible for someone to integrate the significant amount of technological requirements needed to produce that result as something previously calculated.
To the question “Is the idea and purpose to put the technical-scientific advances at the service of the better living of man or to put him in the condition of a simple laborer ready to act directly and mechanically in the tasks tending to the increase of big capital?”, I am of the opinion that all the technical-scientific advances always had the intention of achieving an improvement in the quality of life of man, from the invention of the wheel, through the steam engine, electricity, radio, the internal combustion engine, the computer, the Internet and nuclear energy. All of them were used by the prevailing political-economic systems in the countries around the world where they operated, for the good or evil of mankind. The problem was never the advances, but their application, and more importantly, who operated them and with what intentions. With AI, things will be no different.
“Does the AI enterprise, then, set out to maintain the world at the current level of thinking... or to produce a change that, strictly speaking, shapes and establishes a reality more and openly beneficial to large and global investors?” AI is a technological phenomenon as was once the desktop computer and the Internet, which were nothing more than the natural evolution of information and communications technology. I myself am from the time when this technology revolved around large computers and many of us had to abandon businesses because the technology changed. Large companies like banks and industries in every country had to reinvest millions of dollars in moving technical systems around, and they will have to continue to do so with increasing speed as the technology changes if they want to stay in business. AI will force them to change the services provided to their customers to be more efficient, with the associated investment. However, this time around, the advancement goes beyond any previous technology. Let's see:
In very recent research by the RAND Corporation conducted for U.S. Homeland Security, and published earlier this month, the following is stated: "Fundamentally, the implications of AI go far beyond economic productivity and scientific advancement. In the military, improved data analytics and advances in autonomous weaponry are already transforming strategy and capabilities. ...Meanwhile, newer AI models “are on the verge of being able to significantly help beginners create known biological threats,” foreshadowing their remarkable potential to democratize dangerous capabilities around the world..... A survey of AI researchers published in major specialized forums showed that experts estimate a 50% chance that machines will automate all human tasks by 2047...The nation or entity that develops and controls such systems could fundamentally transform the global order and, potentially, guide the future trajectory of humanity" (see complete Report of RAND Corp, How Artificial General Intelligence Could Affect the Rise and Fall of Nations, in https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3034-2.html).
Consequently, powers such as the USA are debating that this technology should be restricted and not decentralized, that is, that it should not be within the reach of many hands. And since AI requires special hardware and software requirements for its proper functioning, they are studying restrictions on the trade of equipment for the generation of AI models, because they are considering it a national security problem.
Now, the Chair asks: “Is it possible to affirm then that with AI there is a supposed and progressive overcoming of human thinking and that, at a certain moment, it will be possible to replace it or turn it into ‘machine man’?”. To that I reply that I do not believe that AI represents a “supposed and progressive overcoming of man's thinking”. As I have already indicated, it is only a step, albeit a gigantic one, in the development of automated processes, but with immediate implications for work, services and manufacturing.
This technology will be able to replace jobs as it has already happened in the past with computers in repetitive tasks in factory assembly lines, but now it is about entire professions, such as engineers, lawyers, and even doctors. A July 11 news item (3 days ago) from ChatGPT's newsletter, GPTZone, reports the following: "Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the United States have succeeded in getting a robot to perform, on its own, a complete gallbladder removal phase in an animal model. The incredible thing about this advance is the total absence of human intervention during the operation: no surgeon directly directed the robotic scalpel at this critical moment. The secret lies in artificial intelligence, AI, with a system built on the popular ChatGPT language model. Thanks to this development, the robot analyzes data in real time, anticipates scenarios, makes its own decisions and adjusts itself during the operation if anything unforeseen arises. The result is an achievement that marks a before and after in the way we understand robotic surgery" (ver Newsletter GPTZone in Spanish, Un Robot Opera sin Humanos por Primera Vez: El Avance que Cambia los Quirófanos, in https://gptzone.net/noticias/un-robot-opera-sin-humanos-por-primera-vez/).
How was such a breakthrough achieved? The note indicates that "To enable the robot to operate autonomously, the experts trained it with an extensive database of real videos of surgical procedures. This training allows the system to understand the steps, anticipate complications and execute actions according to the evolution of the surgery." And what are the advantages? Answer: "...having a robot trained to make decisions instantaneously increases patient safety. It can manage unforeseen situations precisely, without the absent-mindedness or trembling that sometimes affect people after many hours in the operating room. The possibility of operating for longer without losing efficiency is a radical change for complex operations" (see news item quoted). Once this point has been reached, in a few years' time human surgery performed by expert doctors will be a thing of the past, because those performed by a robot with an AI model will be faster, much less costly and safer.
This would answer the questions of the Chair, "Have the human machine and robotization already begun to say goodbye to what is called humanity? Will a large part of the old workforce of technicians, researchers and performers of the most varied occupations be displaced with increasing strength and AI? I could not say that we are saying goodbye to our humanity, but we are already off to a rough start that could get worse if serious discussion of the issue does not begin now to seek solutions.
AI can be a great advance for humanity if it is managed in a proper way, but it can be the undoing of all without the proper human and political consensus that should be initiated by the decision makers in each country. However, what is certain is that this “new intelligence” can destroy or make the “old” human intelligence, or humanity itself, disappear, but not by itself, but by those who have always sought this without the need for technology and who now have an extraordinary additional tool to do so.
In my opinion, it is not a subject that can and should be ideologized, indicating that it is a “revolutionary leap” at the service of someone or a technology at the service of the liberation of “those at the bottom”. I can personally corroborate that these trends in information technology and communications are so important, that even having a background in computing, I decided to dedicate my master's and doctoral studies to economics and development, to understand the essence of these realities, because I firmly believe that in our countries, just as we must be concerned in developing technologies, we must also apply ourselves to study their implications, in order to adequately direct our political development as a nation.
That is why I reminded my Computer Science School, on its 50th Anniversary, of the importance of reinforcing professorships that teach the new generations of computer scientists to analyze the social impact of these technologies and how to manage them in the service of the country. I hope that the UCV continues to be a pioneer in this effort, as it is demonstrating today in this Pío Tamayo Chair.
Thank you very much,
Caracas, July 14, 2025
Blog: TIC’s & Derechos Humanos, https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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