AI, the Nebula of the Future

A few years ago, AI seemed like a utopia, but in a short time, it has become a support tool in the fields of science, education, culture, and communication. In 2023, Noam Chomsky (1) described how the so-called artificial intelligence could not be compared to human intelligence, and that this revolutionary technology brought as many reasons for optimism as for concern. In 2013, Howard Gardner (2) explained how the disruption caused by digital applications had generated a polarisation between the detractors and the admirers of new technologies.

From the perspective of photography and cinema, software such as Adobe Firefly (3) or OpenAI (4) have broken the "rules" of audiovisual communication. They allow for the transformation of forms and contents of images, the modification of lighting and colour tones, or the generation of photographic visions that do not exist from textual descriptions. They have altered, and can even invert, the relationships between creators and viewers, just as smartphones have allowed users of mobile platforms to be both senders and receivers of content at the same time.

From a historical reflection, Ernst H. Gombrich (5), in his book A Short History of the World, explained that as you delve deeper into the history of the past, you enter a nebula with little information. From a post-labour perspective, when you think about the evolution of the concept of AI, it’s like stepping into a nebula: it is difficult to imagine the future due to the lack of references. It’s like those days when you go out into the garden, look up at the sky, and see black and white clouds in continuous motion, forming gaps through which the blue sky is glimpsed. You don’t know if it will rain, if it will be a cloudy day, or if it will be sunny... And the answer, as the song says (6): "my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind".