Stephen Ibaraki, international technology consultant: “We need to prepare for what will happen in five years”

The recent Nobel Prize winner in Physics, Geoffrey Hinton , who was awarded alongside John Hopfield for the development of artificial intelligence (AI), wants to dedicate his final years to warning of the dangers of the technology he helped develop. On the other side of the river is Stephen Ibaraki, an entrepreneur, professor and global technology advisor born 70 years ago in the Canadian city of Kelowna, near Vancouver, where he lives.

Ibaraki, who has participated in the double international meeting World Congress on Innovation and Technology and Digitec in Yerevan (Armenia), to which EL PAÍS has been invited along with a dozen international media, offers a more optimistic view of the current technological revolution, although his calmness when speaking contrasts with the vertigo he anticipates. Founder of AI For Good , he assures that in five years there will be a convergence of unprecedented advances in humanity for which society has to prepare.

Question : What is the immediate future of AI?

Answer . In a global picture, I see AI penetration increasing and it can help reduce inequalities. Everyone will have access to it, so the global deployment of AI will have a positive impact on all sectors. It is true that there will be a skills shortage. In fact, some predictions for 2027 suggest that 70% of the workforce will need to be retrained. But AI can also help. Anyone in the world can participate in its development or obtain resources.

P. But there are many risks too.

R. That's true for everything. Electricity, gene editing, even healthcare can be misused. There is no technology that can't be destructive in the hands of people. You can't stop a car from being misused.

There is no technology that cannot be destructive in the hands of people.

Q. So, misuse cannot be prevented?

A. I think the use of technology for good reasons is greater and will be more positive overall. It's about being very careful in monitoring what's out there and, if there is someone who is using it in a bad way, putting policies or safeguards in place to prevent it.

Q. Do regulations such as the European one prevent these misuses or do they hinder the development of AI?

A. Regulation is a difficult balancing act. It is positive, but it can also prevent investment of resources. Communities and governments have to ask themselves whether regulation is protecting or limiting. Also, not everyone is going to have the same regulation and there are many open source models. I think some governance that everyone can agree on is positive.

Q. Does the immediate future involve robots?

A. AI doesn’t have a body and that limits it. An AI with sensors and capable of manipulating the world around it can potentially increase its capacity. But there is an ethical concern about the personalization of machines. They can have computational capacity and sensors to interact and provide feedback, to learn. There are already companies developing them so that they can work all hours of the year at a huge production level without wear and tear. All of this is scaling up. That robot is going to end up being a companion in your home, an assistant that you can probably talk to and that will help you.

The robot will end up being a companion in your home, an assistant with whom you can probably talk and who will help you.

Q. When?

A. In the next five years, we're going to see unimaginable capabilities from these robots. People may not want to believe it, but autonomous or semi-autonomous devices are becoming cheap enough that, at least in some parts of the world, they can become a mass product.

Q. Is there a risk that this humanization of machines will alter the complexity of personal relationships?

R. It's already happening. Ten years ago, a chat room was launched in China and some users adopted it as friends. And it was nothing compared to what we have now. It will happen.

Q. Are we ready?

A. We are in a transition period during which we cannot predict precisely because things are moving so fast. In the next five years we will see the convergence of all technologies on the rise and in such a way that we need to prepare ourselves.

Q. How?

A. It takes an open mind and agility to be resilient, to look at what's at the edge and think about the implications. We need to prepare ourselves to have responsibility, critical thinking, and make sure we don't lose the ability to empathize. This transition period is new for humanity, we've never had this convergence of technologies at the same time. I'm 70 years old and the world is totally different than the one I saw when I was 10 years old. But now things are moving much faster. It's what I call the double exponential rate of innovation. Imagine what kids are going to see today when they're my age? It will be 1,000 times greater. It's going to be mind-blowing because we're in a moment of tremendous change.

Raul Limon- El Pais Newspaper-Spain 14-1024