Stephen Ibaraki, international tech consultant: ‘We need to prepare for what will happen in five years’

The recent Nobel Prize winner in Physics, Geoffrey Hinton — awarded alongside John Hopfield for their pioneering work in artificial intelligence (AI) — wants to spend his remaining years warning about the potential dangers of the very technology he helped create. On the opposite side of the spectrum is Stephen Ibaraki, a 70-year-old entrepreneur, professor, and international technology advisor from Kelowna, Canada, who offers a more optimistic outlook.

Ibaraki, who recently participated in the World Congress on Innovation and Technology (WCIT) in Yerevan, Armenia — an event attended by EL PAÍS along with a select group of international media — takes a calmer, more forward-looking approach to the current technological revolution. As the founder of AI For Good, he predicts that in just five years, we will witness an unprecedented convergence of technological advancements, and society must be ready to adapt to these profound changes.

Question: What is the immediate future of AI?

Answer. In a global picture, I see AI penetration increasing and it can help reduce inequalities. Everyone will have access to it, so the global deployment of AI will have a positive impact on all sectors. It is true that there will be a skills shortage. In fact, some predictions for 2027 suggest that 70% of the workforce will need to be retrained. But AI can also help. Anyone in the world can participate in its development or obtain resources.

Q. But there are many risks too.

A. That's true for everything. Electricity, gene editing, even healthcare can be misused. There's no technology that can't be destructive in the hands of people. You can't stop a car from being misused.

Q. So, is it impossible to prevent misuse of the technology?

A. I believe the positive applications of technology will far outweigh its misuse, and will be more positive overall. It’s about being very careful about monitoring what’s out there and, if someone is misusing it, implementing policies or safeguards to prevent this.

Q. Do regulations such as the European Union’s AI Act prevent the technology from being misused, or do they hinder the development of AI?

A. Regulation is a difficult balancing act. It’s good, but it can also prevent investment of resources. Communities and governments have to ask themselves whether regulation is protective or limiting. Also, not everyone is going to have the same regulation and there are many open source models. I think some governance that everyone can agree on is good.

Q. Does the immediate future involve robots?

A. AI doesn’t have a body, and that limits it. An AI with sensors that is capable of manipulating the world around it can potentially increase its capacity. But there are ethical concerns about the personalization of machines. They can possess computational capabilities and sensors to interact and provide feedback, allowing them to learn. Some companies are already developing robots that can operate around the clock, producing a huge amount, year-round, with minimal wear and tear. This is scaling rapidly. Eventually, these robots could become companions in your home — assistants you can probably talk with, who will help you.

Q. When could we expect this?

A. In the next five years, we will witness unimaginable advancements in robot capabilities. People may not want to believe it, but autonomous or semi-autonomous devices are becoming affordable enough to potentially become mass-market products, at least in certain parts of the world

Q. Is there a risk that this humanization of machines will alter the complexity of personal relationships?

A. It’s already happening. Ten years ago, an AI chat room was launched in China and some users adopted it as a friend. And that was nothing compared to what we have now. It will happen.

Q. Are we ready?

A. We are in a transition period during where predictions cannot be made with any precision because things are moving so fast. In the next five years we are going to see the convergence of all technologies in such an escalating way that we need to prepare ourselves.

Q. How?

A. It takes an open mind and agility to be resilient, to look at what’s at the edge and think about the implications. We must prepare ourselves to take on responsibility, engage in critical thinking, and to make sure that we don’t lose the ability to empathize. This transition period is new for humanity, we’ve never had this simultaneous convergence of technologies. I’m 70 years old, and the world is totally different from the one I saw when I was 10 years old. But now things are moving much faster. It’s what I call the double exponential rate of innovation. Imagine what children today will experience by the time they reach my age — it’s going to be a thousand times greater, truly mind-blowing, because we’re in an era of tremendous change.

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