For Guilherme Horn, CEO of WhatsApp for Brazil, India and Indonesia and author of the book The AI mindset: she thinks, you decide, artificial intelligence (AI) should not be seen just as a new technological tool, but as a civilizational leap that impacts human behavior, work, business models and even global geopolitics. The executive was one of the main highlights of the AI program at São Paulo Innovation Week (SPIW), the largest global technology and innovation festival, held by Estadão in partnership with Base Eventos, at Pacaembu and Faap.
“You will look at a person who doesn’t use a personal AI agent in the same way you look today at a person who doesn’t have a cell phone. It’s a new era. AI is not a new technological tool. It represents a change in civilization,” he says.
The executive at Meta (owner of WhatsApp) says that the company is preparing AI agents that will become everyday assistants, maintaining the premise of being simple, reliable and private. “AI is not simple. Creating an AI agent today is not very simple, but it is becoming more and more accessible. It is inevitable: we will all have our AI agents in a very short time”, he says.
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In companies, Horn says there is a big gap forming between those that are using AI to redesign work and those that are just using it as a question-and-answer tool.
“I have the opportunity to be at a big tech company that uses AI in everything it does. My agent is attending meetings for me right now, with better interventions than mine, because he remembers two years ago that I don’t even remember anymore. He also makes associations that even I wouldn’t make,” says Horn.
He states that using AI as a tool to do the same things as before can bring productivity gains, but not necessarily in the smartest way.
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Optimistic view of AI
Horn says that the negative view regarding the use of AI is a collective Dunning-Kruger effect, in which those who know little about a subject think they know a lot about it and jump to conclusions, precisely because they don’t know what they don’t know.
The executive cited a study carried out with around 600 professionals in the United States and Europe, cited in the new book Entanglement, by technology researcher Marigo Raftopoulos, which highlighted problems related to issues such as integration, trust, performance and implementation, with 84% of people concerned about risks, including cybersecurity, job loss and military uses.
However, his vision towards her is positive. “There are few people who come to show the positive side of AI, advances in science, increased productivity – which we often hear with a negative connotation, linked to layoffs -, increased quality of life and human empowerment. This is already a reality today in some bubbles, some places, companies and communities”, says Horn.
In education, the expert envisions the possibility of personalized teaching at scale, changing the role of the teacher from content disseminator to mentor in an era in which learning can be individualized by AI. In medicine, he highlights advances in early diagnosis and individualized treatments that are already beginning to occur.
Instead of massive job losses due to AI, Horn sees the replacement of specific roles and the creation of a vast number of new professions that we cannot yet imagine. “If I remember my childhood, a series of professions that existed, such as typist, elevator operator or telephone operator, no longer exist. When technology arrives, it replaces some functions, sometimes some jobs. But we have no idea how many new functions will be created”, he says.
São Paulo Innovation Week
São Paulo Innovation Week, the largest global technology and innovation festival, is held by Estadão in partnership with Base Eventos, at Pacaembu and Faap, until this Friday, the 15th. Among the more than 2 thousand guest speakers for the three days of the event are Brazilian and foreign experts in areas such as science, health, education, agribusiness, finance, mobility, geopolitics, sports, sustainability, art, music and philosophy, among many others.
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Over the weekend, the festival takes a series of free side events to four Unified Educational Centers (CEUs) in the city, in partnership with São Paulo City Hall. They are: Heliópolis, Freguesia do Ó, Papa Francisco (Sapopemba) and Silvio Santos (Cidade Ademar). No registration is necessary; Access will be on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to space capacity. The free program brings together names like Marcelo Gleiser, Maria Homem and Ivair Gontijo in debates and immersive experiences.
