How are we and will we continue to be better than machines?

MJ Petroni, “cyborg anthropologist”, is a world expert in human-machine relations. He studies how machines, by changing, also change us.

He is the co-founder and CEO of Causeit, an innovation consulting firm that works with organizations around the world to help them adapt and thrive in an increasingly digital world.

We spoke with him at a private press conference within the framework of Jalisco Talent Land 2023.

In your work, you talk about the importance of Digital Fluency. Do you think it is something that young people should learn on their own or should it be the responsibility of governments and companies to educate them so that they have this ability?

It is important for us to educate ourselves, and also for companies, governments, educational systems, everyone.

What we are saying is that fluency is different from literacy. Literacy is something we learned in school, like reading. But fluency is about language. It’s a practice. Digital fluency is something we have to practice all the time.

When we say digital fluency, we mean it is a combination of digital thinking, tools, data, business models, and skills.

Usually the conversation about digital is about tools, the specific technologies, but we have to think about the whole context. Saying phrases in Spanish is not the same as having a native conversation in Spanish. It is the same with technology.

Of all the new technologies that are in vogue, such as the metaverse, augmented reality and artificial intelligence, which is the one that personally interests you the most and why?

I’m interested in a lot of things, but I think the most relevant right now is generative AI, because it doesn’t need a lot of investment from a company to be used immediately.

In the metaverse you have to wear virtual reality headsets, blockchain has to change the whole money system, but generative AI can be used immediately.

Microsoft will start with Copilot in Office 365, which is a product that will make PowerPoints, Excel and Word. It will help people to code. There are Adobe Firefly systems that are going to change how we edit photos or do distortions. That is instantaneous, not in the future.

That is why this paradigm is different from other technologies that need more time to grow their exponential network effect. The exponential network effect of AI is here.

In what ways are humans still very different from machines? In what ways will humans continue to be better than machines?

In matters of emotion, we have more complexity and nuance of emotion than a machine. And also about things of value and ethics. We are still better at thinking critically.

When there are two truths, when there are two different things that can be true, humans can resolve conflicts that a machine cannot.

Machines are good at math, they’re good at things where you have to be very specific or make a lot of big products with speed. And for that, I think we have to be in our wits zone.

Machines can mimic creativity, from many parts they have ingested. You can search for a lot of photos, make a combination, but it’s not creativity in the way that we think of creativity.

We have to guide the machines and with the machines we can amplify ourselves. That’s why our ethics are more important than any other part of this story, because they’re going to amplify our ethical stuff.

Our divisions are going to be amplified. Our violent things can be amplified, but also our tendencies to be in relationship with other people, to have empathy, can also be amplified by machines.