The line between legislating in opposition to disinformation and censorship could be very skinny – Pledge Times

We have to create, among all of us, politicians, technologists, journalists, etc., an ethical code to know how to act with technology, for example in terms of data exploitation. Three young women well aware of the challenges of the technological revolution explained their ideas, fears and solutions in the debate that was broadcast live from the newsroom of El PAS. The guests were Nagua Alba, psychologist and deputy for Guipzcoa (Podemos), who is the youngest deputy in the Chamber; Clara Jimnez, journalist, founder of Maldita.es and one of the experts appointed by the European Commission in its plan to deal with disinformation and fake news; and Nerea Luis Mingueza, researcher in robotics and artificial intelligence at the Carlos III University, who was the one who pronounced the sentence with which the paragraph begins. The reason for the meeting was to find out what has been the impact of this transformation among the youngest, a more vulnerable group but also more flexible and with greater capacity to adapt. Also invited was Roco Vidal, scientific disseminator on YouTube, creator of the successful channel La Gata by Schrdinger, who was unable to arrive in time due to a problem with transportation.

Politics lags behind society when it comes to the use of technology, said Alba, reality is always on top of politicians. The deputy believes that this revolution is catching the leaders with the wrong foot, but warned about the risks that legislative measures could pose against disinformation, for example. The line between legislating against disinformation and censorship is very thin, said Jimnez, aware that many governments may try to take advantage of this controversy to curtail freedom of expression and of the press. Alba proposed that it would be more useful to train educating the critical spirit of the citizenry to discern what it is that they are reading. In this sense, Luis insisted that much more should be done in technological training from a young age, giving them access to information.

The guests talked about the risks of social networks, in the propagation of hoaxes immediately and massively. What worries the technology community the most is the speed with which the false sources are shared, because the denials will not spread as much, explained the robotics and artificial intelligence specialist. In the same way, Jimnez recalled that there are already 36% of Spaniards already reported by WhatsApp: Which means that we consume more information, but also more disinformation. And he warned: More and more misinformation comes to us about migrations and it is something that is happening throughout Europe: hoaxes, videos against migrants, which arise in Spain and which in two days are in Italy or Germany. However, they all insisted that the networks have a positive side, as Jimnez and Alba recalled, by empowering women around the mobilizations for Womens Day or #MeToo.

Politics lags behind society when it comes to the use of technology. Reality is always on top of politicians, lamented Alba

Faced with the labor and unemployment problems that will arise with robotization and artificial intelligence, Nerea Luis stated that there will be a tendency to replace jobs dedicated to repetitive tasks with robots, but what is in a more creative field is going to be harder to replace. The political response to this challenge was provided by Nagua Alba: It will be good if we have to work less, to dedicate ourselves to leisure or care. But the political question is whether we abandon people who will not be able to work, said the deputy, defending the possibility of introducing basic income.

This debate is the first event of a special, called The age of puzzlement, with reports and interviews where expert anthropologists, philosophers, psychologists, economists and technologists will debate, from different perspectives, what awaits humanity in the face of the technological changes that are underway, and also those that will come in the medium term and that we do not even expect .

This special will culminate on November 27 in Madrid a debate in which three of the worlds leading experts will participate in the consequences of the evolution of technology and artificial intelligence. Continuing the debate generated by the book The age of puzzlement, from Openmind, the speakers will discuss issues such as the future of democracy and work, analyzing the role of disruptive technologies in politics and the economy. The three speakers are Nuria Oliver, Director of Research in Data Sciences at Vodafone, Luciano Floridi, Director of the Digital Ethics Lab and professor of Philosophy and Information Ethics at the University of Oxford, and Jannis Kallinikos, professor of Information Systems in the Management Department of the London School of Economics.

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The line between legislating in opposition to disinformation and censorship could be very skinny - Pledge Times