Artificial intelligence must be challenged, says scientist Alberto Kornblihtt

The artificial intelligence It does not generate knowledge, but rather reproduces what exists, therefore, science or education cannot be subjected to it, said in an interview with EFE. biologist Argentine molecular, Alberto Kornblihtt.

“I am concerned about that because I see that this use is prone to accepting certain statements that the chatGPT can give you and that they are not very rigorous, that is, for me the rigor of the human being is needed to be able to filter (the contents)”, he said on a visit to Guadalajara, western Mexico, where he gave a series of talks to university students.

The renowned scientist, member of the Academies of Science of the United States and France, pointed out that artificial intelligence (AI) is another tool that helps to understand certain disciplines, but that at the same time it must be confronted and not accepted as something definitive. .

“I accept AI if I can challenge it, if I am going to submit to it I do not accept it. “I have challenged her twice and possibly if I do it again now with the same questions she will have improved, but I don’t find it very interesting,” he assured.

For the Argentine, the world is living in a time in which people come to believe speeches that say they are valid, even if it cannot be verified.

“It’s not that science has to explain everything or that it is omniscient, (…) but it teaches you that you have to be cautious with statements”he claimed.

He pointed out that everything related to post-truth does not allow room for the possibility of knowing, since “The only thing that exists is intersubjectivity and I fight that deeply”said.

“There is the possibility of knowing, only what you know or affirm is transitory, until it is refuted.”he added.

Science and extinction

Kornblihtt was invited to the Julio Cortázar Chair to teach a course on “Molecular biology for non-biologists” in which he spoke with young people of all ages about science, genes and proteins.

The scientist is known for his work to understand alternative splicing, a process with which cells obtain different proteins through a single gene and which is applied in many scientific areas and daily life, including cancer diseases and human evolution. .

In an interview with EFE, he stated that one of the topics he is passionate about is the evolution of Homo sapiens, influenced by the theory of the Swede Svante Pääbo, 2022 Nobel Prize in Medicine, for his findings on the DNA of Neanderthals and whom he considers his “scientific idol.”

He has also reflected on the extinction of the Earth, as a natural process in which the sun will overheat before going out definitively in a few million years, although he accepts that this could happen much sooner if humans do not take measures against the global warming.

“They say it’s a natural phenomenon that happened other times, of course, but it happened other times when there were no humans. Suppose we don’t speed it up, we’d still have to do something to slow it down. Suppose the acceleration is a 10% what happens anyway, well, we have to avoid that 10%”he claimed.

Against individualism

Kornblihtt is one of the scientists who has been in favor of issues such as the interruption of pregnancy, the reconstruction of memory and the reparation of the daughters and sons of missing people who were given up for adoption and has been against the “individualism” that the covid-19 pandemic brought to some sectors of the population.

“This individualistic thing of I don’t get vaccinated, I don’t wear a mask, I go out on the street, I want freedom, it has its consequences. (…) People who are convinced that the solution is individual, that they do not care about others, something that was contained in a sector of the town, but was expressed in the pandemic”he expressed.

He assured that this position is taken up by politicians such as Javier Milei, liberal candidate for the Argentine presidency, and José Antonio Kast, former ultra-conservative candidate for the presidency of Chile, in 2021, and in speeches that seek to disrupt human and individual rights.

“It makes me sad that our country (Argentina) have to go back to square one on many things that we thought were guaranteed. I’m not sure it’s going to be the same as in Brazil. Vox, in Spain; Bolsonaro; Trump, in the United States; the leader Kast, in Chile, have something in common, of course, but I see Milei a little worse than all of them”said.