Project Vision 21

It has been said, and quite rightly so, that someone with only a hammer in their hand sees the world as a nail. The same could now be said of artificial intelligence, which, unlike the hammer, changes and adapts with each interaction. Therefore, the question is no longer “What do you think?” but “How do you think?”

We are, without a doubt, at a moment of total transformation in the conditions under which we interpret reality and, consequently, the conditions that allow us to make decisions and find (or create) meaning in life. In other words, AI has modified the way we understand ourselves and the way we create our stories.

The reconfiguration of our perception of reality (mediated by screens, social networks, and AI), as well as the new context of our own consciousness, generates the demand to assume our ethical responsibility when interpreting and sharing whose creation and dissemination we have (inevitably, I believe) outsourced and delegated to the AI ​​ecosystem.

Obviously, human beings never interpret reality neutrally. “I speak to you from my objectivity,” one of my professors often repeated when I was studying philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires. Every interpretation includes a social, historical, environmental, and personal context. “I am myself and my circumstances,” Ortega y Gasset taught us.

Therefore, since humanity has existed as such, it has been and remains necessary to understand and responsibly and ethically accept that our perspectives influence our perception of reality, so we cannot declare ourselves “innocent” of the consequences of our interpretations. Now, with the arrival of AI, that responsibility has intensified.

Before, when information was scarce and remained in the hands of a privileged few, there were few opportunities to disagree with the interpretation of the world imposed by those in power.

Now, the abundance of information (and the scarcity of wisdom) allows anyone to choose whatever meaning they want from the information received. And that choice is precisely the point at which responsibility emerges, not only for having leaned toward a certain sense or interpretation of reality, but also for the practical consequences of the choice.

The situation is further complicated because, when the technological environment changes, especially when cognitive tools capable of facilitating reasoning and generating knowledge become widespread, the narrative frameworks through which people interpret their lives also begin to change.

Professions, leadership, education, creativity, and even daily life are understood as collaborative processes with human AI and technological systems. Human beings cease to be the sole producers of knowledge and become curators, interpreters, and those responsible for ethical decisions within distributed cognitive systems.

The question is whether human beings will continue to be responsible for the meanings produced by AI. The answer will determine the future of the new societies now emerging.