Excellence, merit and effort have led Ricardo Buitrago Ruiz from Murcia to find a place among the one hundred Spanish students awarded scholarships by the la Caixa Foundation to pursue postgraduate studies abroad, specifically, a master’s degree in Machine Learning at Carnegie Mellon University ( USA). Graduated in Mathematics and Physics from the Complutense University, Buitrago, who already enjoyed a scholarship at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), wants to participate with his knowledge and ideas in the gestation of the revolution propelled by artificial intelligence ( AI).
–What project do you want to develop during your postgraduate stay at Carnegie Mellon (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)?
–The master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence that I am going to take directly addresses the fundamentals of AI. It is about not only seeing what tools and in what cases we can apply, but getting into the guts and seeing how it is built from scratch. The algorithms with which AI is developed are developed by people, who can have biases. That AI will be applied to issues related to social justice, healthcare… If I have a bias that leads me to think that it is preferable to treat one young patient rather than two elderly patients, the AI model will make that decision. These are moral issues that we will have to face and it is important how to create the algorithms. It is essential to have control as a country and as the European Union of these algorithms, which are going to be used in defense, in the penitentiary system, for the distribution of resources… As a country it is important that we generate AI also because of the amount of wealth that going to produce For these reasons, it is a crucial moment to bring it to Spain and have a mastery over the algorithms that are generated. OpenIA is generated in San Francisco, why not a ‘hub’ in Madrid that also allows data privacy to be controlled? If it is not done now, as it was in the industrial revolution, you are left out, only as a consumer. There are different ways of understanding ethics and morality, and we need to understand what we as a society want AI to do. We have to have a domain and it cannot be something imposed by a country or a company.
–These biases are present in all AI developments…
–They are present, ChatGPT recognizes that there are biases. There is another important issue, and that is that AI needs to be regulated. As it is now without regulation, all the benefits will fall on a few, and the wealth must be distributed. AI is generated with data and knowledge that humanity has produced, and we are all entitled to benefit from the wealth it generates.
–And especially considering that thousands of people will lose their jobs due to AI…
It is a well-founded risk, and there are several answers. One is the creation of a universal basic income, and another is to share the benefits. The advances and wealth that will be generated are very high…
It seems difficult to think that companies are going to be willing to share those benefits…
There are mechanisms and there is regulation. Some parties have begun to take an interest. Perhaps I am being optimistic, it will not be easy. But as an example, let’s think that one of the concerns is that ChatGPT was racist, and that concern is because we have no tolerance for racism. If we generate sensitivity towards economic injustice and inequality, the same thing happens. It has its risks: that each one tries to have their principles taken into account.
– Will the master’s degree allow you to participate in this process?
–It will give me the knowledge to generate independent AI; not the tricks to apply one scheme or another, but a critical thought to see what algorithm can be developed.
–The creators of ChatGPT warned of the risks…
–You have to listen to them, because the risks they cite are well founded, but I don’t think it’s a defeatist thought. I think his biggest point was to suggest that it’s time to pause because we need time.
Has studying the double degree in Physics and Mathematics helped you to develop that ability to abstract from the problem and propose solutions?
–Yes, it is a way of thinking, of verifying how the greatest challenges of knowledge have been resolved. The training we have received is very good, in Los Angeles I perceived it that way. I don’t think I would have had a better education at Oxford than at Complutense.
The two winners of the Region receive their scholarships from the Kings
Yesterday, the King and Queen of Spain presided over the award ceremony of the la Caixa Foundation postgraduate scholarships abroad, awarded to the 100 university students selected in the 2022 call. Two of them are Murcian students. Juan José Blázquez Garre, from Lorca, who is studying Advanced Studies in Musical Interpretation at the Royal Northern College of Music (United Kingdom), and Ricardo Buitrago Ruiz, who is studying a master’s degree in Machine Learning at Carnegie Mellon University. The program covers the entire cost of tuition and a monthly scholarship.
#wealth #generated