The deterioration of democracy, the turbulent world order, the crisis of trust in the media, social and political polarization or the emergence of artificial intelligence in all areas of life, for better and for worse. These are the topics that focused this Thursday on the opening day of the first one organized by the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) together with the Encuentros del Futuro Foundation, from Chile.
Beyond a diagnosis of the challenges facing humanity, the debates have emphasized proposals for a future in which democracies are strong, in which peace prevails, with honest journalism and technologies at the service of people’s well-being.
“We have lost the narrative because they [quienes promueven un mundo sin reglas] They are the revolutionaries and we are the conservatives, who want to preserve the institutions, democracy, and humans. That is why this congress was born, to replace a narrative with an eye toward the future,” said former Chilean senator Guido Girardi, founder of the Future Congress in Chile in 2011.
Three decades later, the meeting celebrates its first transatlantic edition in Madrid with the participation of fifty speakers, political leaders, thinkers, journalists and scientists. Among them, Josep Borrell, former high representative of the European Union, Rebeca Grynspan, secretary general of UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Michele Bachelet, former president of Chile, and José Luis Martínez-Almeida, mayor of Madrid. Jan Martínez Ahrens, director of EL PAÍS, a newspaper that participates in quality, also participated. media partner congressional.
“I never think about the future, it comes too soon,” said Albert Einstiein. For him, the scientist was half right. “The future is not what is going to happen, but what we are going to do,” he resorted to a phrase by Jorge Luis Borges, to contradict the scientist. “Today we live immersed in uncertainty. If in the present society seems to be out of control, what is the point of paying attention to the future? The truth is that we must worry more about the future, we must make efforts so that the society out of control does not become the new normal.”
“The most urgent thing is to recover appreciation for democracy in a public debate that is mired in shouting that prevents listening and encourages detachment from the system,” said Borrell in a conversation with Argentine diplomat Susana Malcorra, president of GWL Voices, about the role of Ibero-America in global governance.
Malcorra has stressed the value of multilateralism, with a renewed United Nations with a woman at the head of the general secretary. “The world needs a different voice capable of understanding the complexity and leading the transition with empathy, creativity and the capacity for dialogue, and in Latin America we have enough talent for the person responsible for this United Nations 2.0 to come from the region,” he defended.
Two of the candidates to succeed António Guterres in office participated by video in the meeting. Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary General of UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and Michele Bachelet, former president of Chile, have reinforced the idea of the importance of building bridges between Latin America and Europe. “Working on the common without denying what is different. This is what multilateralism needs,” stated Grynspan.
In a video intervention, Nadia Calviño, president of the European Investment Bank (EIB), stressed that the alliance between Latin America and Europe is key in the current geopolitical context. The president has stressed that Europe is a beacon of democratic values at a time of global instability. “When some reject alliances and withdraw from international forums, we continue to advance.” The EIB is an important actor in promoting “Ibero-American friendship,” he said.
Journalism and democracy
Jan Martínez Ahrens, director of EL PAÍS, defended in his speech in front of the Casa América auditorium honest, independent journalism, “that seeks facts over prejudices”, in the face of a wave of “intolerance” in which “hatred and lies feed off each other”.
In his opinion, the enemies of journalism, like Trump, have taken advantage of the discredit of the profession to persecute the media and professionals critical of his management, “even comedians who make fun of him,” he recalled, whose program on the ABC network was suspended (and later reinstated) by and the motivations of the alleged murderer of Trumpist activist Charlie Kirk.
Ahrens has highlighted the danger of practicing journalism, especially in Latin America, which means that informants from some countries put their own lives at risk. So far this year, in the exercise of the profession, according to Reporters Without Borders. A figure that far exceeds nine in 2024.
“These are not calm times,” Ahrens concluded. “Not only because of misinformation. We live in times of model change with artificial intelligence”, which represents a “paradigm change”, since “it can serve to multiply hoaxes and lies, but also to contrast and digest enormous amounts of data.” “A revolution is coming,” he stated. And the world of journalism must avoid falling into the same mistakes of the past that have led to the current panorama of mistrust, he warned.
The emergence of artificial intelligence has focused the debate on democracy, media and technologies at the table. Daniel Hadad, founder of Infobae, has been optimistic that instead of replacing the journalist, AI will serve to alleviate tedious tasks and will give professionals more time to go to places and compare the facts. Clara Jiménez, co-founder of Maldita.es, agreed. However, the expert has clarified that the risk lies in the misinformation that AI can spread without citizens being yet prepared to discern which answers are true and which are not. “It is programmed to give you an answer, not necessarily a truthful answer,” he warned.
Jiménez has stated that democracy is already at risk, it is not something that will happen in the future. “We see it in the United States, which is becoming an autocracy,” he quoted.
In this sense, for José María Lasalle, political analyst and former Secretary of State for Culture and Information Society and Digital Agenda of Spain, “the idea that the majority legitimizes power has translated into blank checks for those who obtain that power. Liberal democracy disappears, which was based on the fact that power must be controlled, and authoritarian democracy appears,” he argued. “Neutralizing it requires stopping and thinking, and not getting carried away by polarization and noise.”
Cities, digital work and brain protection
The afternoon sessions have focused on addressing urban challenges, with cities that leave no one behind, as well as the challenges of digital work and brain protection through neurorights. “A city is smart when people want to live in it because of the opportunities to progress that it offers, because of its public space, its accessible mobility, its response to climate change, its security and its ability to also integrate leisure,” listed the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida.
The panel on the smart cities of the future brought together, among others, the writer and architect Pedro Torrijos, who has claimed the power of stories to tell urban realities, and the architect Inés Sánchez de Madariaga, a pioneer in understanding urban planning from the point of view of gender and care, taking into account how men and women experience cities differently. The day continued with the panel on the digital economy and the future of work, which included the participation of Telefónica’s global public affairs strategy director, Trinidad Jiménez, who declared herself a techno-optimist: “Technology increases our capabilities, creates opportunities and, when used well, develops thinking.”
More concerned about the impact of technology on the future of humanity has been Guido Girardi, who also promoted the inclusion of the so-called neurorights in the Chilean Constitution. “AI, unlike previous technologies that helped human beings advance, is substitutive,” he warned. And for him it is no coincidence that social networks are polarizing us. “The current battlefield is in our brain. Increasingly intelligent machines are fighting for our privacy and attention. When we use GPT, humans lose cognitive abilities,” he explained in the last debate table, dedicated to this subject.
