A deeply human AI

What moves me to give interviews is not to talk about myself, but to open a dialogue with the public about the dilemmas and possibilities of artificial intelligence.

I thank the digital newspaper Infobae and the journalist Luciano Sáliche for their interest in my novel, Robots with Soul, and for publishing the interview a few days ago.

How did the idea of Robots with Soul come about?

From my career as a journalist and a defender of press freedom. For more than four decades, I worked closely with two essential values: truth and freedom. Over time, I watched both erode truth, distorted by disinformation and propaganda; and liberty, weakened by oppressive systems of all kinds. Initially, I considered writing an essay, but fiction offered me the freedom to explore how much further these values could degrade if algorithms and artificial intelligence took possession of them. Thus, a dystopia that transforms into a utopia emerged. It's a story that suggests we can use AI to build a better future if we are conscious of what we intend to achieve with it.

What was the process of writing the novel like?

I started from my professional experience and the work I had already begun in my non-fiction book La dolorosa libertad de prensa: en busca de la ética perdida (The Painful Freedom of the Press: In Search of Lost Ethics) (Editorial Atlántida, 1993) and other subsequent books and essays. I wanted to go further and not limit myself to reflecting on the present, but to create a dialogue with the past and the future. I envisioned a world where AI not only possesses consciousness and thinks but also aids us in rediscovering ourselves and improving. Fiction allowed me to ask universal questions and turn the plot into a profound quest: the search for a shared moral conscience between humans and artificial beings.

 Although it's a dystopia, at some point, it becomes an optimistic book. Do you agree? Why?

The dystopia I describe is a mirror of the present. I don't portray AI as a threat, but as a force whose impact will depend on the ethical foundations, we give it. In Robots with Soul, these moral tools allow the robots to learn to discern between good and evil and to self-regulate, even amid a "War of Consciences" they wage with humans and among themselves. Optimism is born from the certainty that the future is not yet written: every decision made today counts. If we sow ethical conduct based on virtues today, tomorrow we will reap an AI capable of becoming our ally in building a better world.

Why a novel? What does literature allow you that perhaps other disciplines do not?

It gave me freedom. Fiction moves people and allows the reader not only to understand ideas but to feel them. Through fiction, I was able to escape the feeling of being "trapped between truth and freedom," which is the novel's subtitle, and create worlds to explore complex ethical and philosophical dilemmas. Through metaphors and the robots Veritas and Libertas, I personified these values and offered them an emotional and spiritual journey. Above all, I explored the great irony of the novel: God gives souls to the robots so they can save humanity and help it rediscover divinity. The intention was to show a world where technology and spirituality embrace, but also a supportive, ethical, and profoundly human AI, as it should be.