carmen rodriguez
Bilbao (EFE).- The Australian philosopher Peter Singer, who receives the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Bilbao, believes that “it is justified that we have a certain fear” of artificial intelligence and it is important that it be controlled in some way.
However, for this bioethics professor, the most urgent ethical challenge we face is climate change.
Singer has won the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Humanities this year together with the Canadian experimental psychologist Steven Pinker.
The Australian philosopher (Melbourne, 1946) has marked a turning point by extending and founding ethics by applying it to the domain of animals, with notable consequences for international legislation on animal welfare.
Animal welfare
Inspiring the movements in favor of animal welfare with his work “Animal Liberation” (1975), Singer explains to EFE that it is not that animal suffering should be given the same weight as human suffering, but that these “should receive the same consideration in regarding their interests.
“We should not think that we as a species are more important than the others,” he adds.
Australian philosopher Peter Singer speaks in an interview with EFE about his academic work in the field of rationality and moral progress. EFE/Luis Tejido
Question: After almost 50 years of “Animal Liberation” are you satisfied with the progress made in defending the welfare of animals?
Answer: I am not satisfied, much more should have been done, but I am happy that there is a movement in favor of animal rights and that there have been advances and changes in the laws, although there is much to be done.
Q: Is it difficult for people to be aware that animals suffer too, especially with some forms of breeding, or is it that we don’t care?
A: There are several reasons. One is that for thousands of years we have had an ideology that says that we have dominion over animals and that we can use them at our convenience.
Thus, we have developed ways of using animals through macro-farms, for experimentation. It’s hard to make changes to things that are so deeply embedded in our culture.
Climate change, a challenge for society
Q: What is the most urgent challenge facing Humanity from an ethical point of view?
A: Climate change is probably becoming an increasingly urgent issue. The climate is changing all over the planet, and yet we continue to emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Q: We don’t seem to realize how dangerous it is?
A: Yes, but the weather imposes itself on us, we cannot avoid it affecting us. I am Australian and we cannot ignore forest fires. We are having unprecedented weather phenomena.
P: In your thinking, you talk about the importance of reasoning to change the way you act and that it is more important than the emotional impulse. If we look at our world, are we a little lacking in reasoning?
A: Unfortunately, human beings do not always act on reasoning, it can be seen in many dimensions: regarding war, climate change and many religious beliefs, but that does not mean that reasoning has not advanced if we look at long periods of history.
Now we use the reasoning better, there are more people who approach life rationally to solve the problems of the Earth, although, of course, there are people who do not act rationally or who do not adopt a universal point of view.
It is important that we recognize that we are one world and that climate change and other things affect us all. That is the difficulty, you have to not only be rational, but also have a sufficiently universal perspective.
Q: Do you think we can get to have that universal perspective?
A: We must try to be optimistic, because otherwise we will throw in the towel, and have that perspective, especially in terms of climate change, which is forcing us to think that we all live in the same world.
I think a lot of people realize this and there will come a time when all the leaders of the countries of the world realize it.
regulate artificial intelligence
Q: Artificial intelligence is at the center of a debate. There are those who ask that the investigation be paused for a few months and that it be regulated. Should we be afraid of her?
A: We’re justified in having some fear about AI and what it might end up doing, but it’s also important that we watch it, regulate it, or control it in some way.
I think it’s going to be very difficult for him to pause to think about how it’s going to develop, it’s going to be very difficult for there to be a global agreement on this.
Furthermore, it is much more difficult to observe this than the development of nuclear weapons; it is very difficult to monitor whether someone is developing artificial intelligence or not, so we have to rely on common sense.
We do not want artificial intelligence to get out of control and seriously harm us, so I think it is very good that this debate exists, that people are more aware of the need to consider this, but I do not know how we are going to reach a common agreement.
Q: Is there a chance that artificial intelligence will get out of hand? Who should do its supervision, an international body?
A: Admittedly, there are chances of it getting out of hand, we can’t say for sure that it will never get out of hand.
I think we have to take time to talk about it, to devise ways of control that we can agree on, but I’m not too expert to go into the subject too much.
Q: Perhaps artificial superintelligence will arrive in the future, should it have ethical values?
Q: If we were to develop it, it would have to take into account the interests of all sentient beings, not just human beings. These would be the fundamental principles on which artificial intelligence should be based.
Q: As a philosopher and professor of ethics, what is the influence of this discipline on people’s lives?
A: Without a doubt, philosophy and ethics have an influence on our lives. I receive hundreds of emails from people whose lives have been changed by my work, teaching, or reading my work. The power of ethics to change people’s lives cannot be underestimated. EFE