For Gerd Leonhard (Bonn, Germany, 64 years old), technology, especially artificial intelligence, is reshaping the world in an “unpredictable, hostile, and unreliable” way. Futurist and humanist, author of the book technology vs. Humanity (2016), spoke about the lights and shadows of technological progress at the Trends 2025 event held in Madrid.
“Technology companies are the ones that will tell us what the future will be like,” he said. This future will be brighter or darker depending on the motives of these companies. He commented: At the moment, incentives Big tech It is profits, growth and power.
Leonard defended this, saying: “If the future they take us into is going to be characterized by these incentives, it will not be as good as it could be with the technology in our hands. Will we once again ignore the huge side effects of technological progress? We did it with climate change, we are doing it with artificial intelligence. We need a new economic logic, machines do the routine work and we do everything else. The tools must remain just that, the tools, and the thinking is ours.”
he Trends 2025 event It is a meeting organized by EL PAÍS and sponsored by Abertis, Enagás, EY, Novartis, OEI (Organization of Ibero-American States), Redeia and Santander.