The Fundación César Manrique (FCM) will host the lecture "La autenticidad humana como respuesta a la inteligencia artificial" on Thursday 11 June at 19:30, delivered by José María Lassalle, an expert in technological humanism and the ethics of artificial intelligence, writer and university lecturer.
The event will take place in the Sala José Saramago (La Plazuela, Arrecife) and will be streamed live on the FCM website and YouTube channel.
Artificial intelligence and the human condition
Lassalle will reflect on the evolution of AI, from its conception 70 years ago to the present day, a moment in which generative AI is challenging human beings — for the first time in history — for the cognitive ability to act upon the world more efficiently and more capably. In this respect, the speaker will warn of the challenge facing humanity as to what to do in the face of a will to technological power that is being maximised in the service of a global conflict waged by the United States and China for world hegemony.
In his view, the answer can only lie in an education that backs being over doing. The expert believes that "fostering wisdom through the cultivation of the authenticity that lies in caring for the human condition is the only response to an AI that will be conscious, but that will need human beings in order to govern itself through the awareness it does not have and never will, because knowing reality will never be the same as understanding it and transcending it".
The "Fronteras y direcciones del progreso" series
The talk forms part of the FCM's "Fronteras y direcciones del progreso" series of reflections. It is a forum devoted to revisiting the idea of progress from multidisciplinary perspectives, and has already featured, among others, Ramón Margalef, Joan Martínez Alier, Francisco Jarauta, Remedios Zafra, Ignacio Ramonet, Sami Naïr, Rafael Argullol, Ulrich Beck, Marc Augé, Susan George, Daniel Innerarity, Margarita del Val, Joaquín Estefanía, Gloria Poyatos, Josep María Esquirol and, recently, César Rendueles.
About José María Lassalle
José María Lassalle holds a doctorate in Law. He currently lectures in Philosophy of Law at the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas (ICADE), where he pursues a line of research based on the impact of the digital revolution and, specifically, artificial intelligence on contemporary societies.
In this field, his most recent essays include: Ciberleviatán (2019); El liberalismo herido (2021) and Civilización artificial (2024), all published by Arpa editorial.
He is also a private consultant and analyst, director of the Foro de Humanismo Tecnológico at ESADE, a member of various bodies and institutions, and the author of numerous essays and academic publications on political thought and Anglo-Saxon philosophy, as well as writing for El País and La Vanguardia and contributing to RNE and the SER.
From 2004 he combined his work in politics with teaching at the Universidad San Pablo-CEU and the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid. In 2011 he was appointed Secretary of State for Culture and in 2016 for the Digital Agenda. He left politics in July 2018.