At the beginning of this new era, marked by the absolute triumph of artificial intelligence (AI), the Fundació Catalunya Voluntaria is organizing an international seminar dedicated to an outdated and rarely discussed topic: human intelligence (HI).
The activity, “The Power of Human Intelligence,” champions intelligence as a human capacity, comprised of a series of human skills and attitudes (such as problem-solving and empathy) result of thousands of years of evolution and where all types of civilizations and cultures have contributed, which we do not want to relinquish (even if stupidity, not intelligence, has been the predominant tone all through the history).
The training activity will take place from October 24th to 30th in Vilanova i la Geltrú (Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain), revolving around the practices, experiences, and knowledge of a group of 22 people, managers, educators, and heads of nonprofit organizations coming from 10 countries, willing to learn how to make more intensive and productive use of AI (obviously), and to understand not only its benefits but also its limitations and contraindications, so we know what we can and can’t expect from each type of intelligence, while using both in a complementary, and not exclusive way.
Throughout the preparation and during the activity, the organizations are committed to working together to reach conclusions, lessons learned, and guidelines that will help us use AI responsibly and beneficially (at least not harmfully), and that can serve many other NGOs, also immersed in a process of digital transformation.
We want to highlight that we are not organizing this activity out of fear of losing our jobs, but out of fear of losing our intelligence (what is left) and other essentially human capabilities; we don’t want AI to mean abandoning HI (massively and in record time), nor do we want to be excluded nor exclusive as a part of a system designed by a type of intelligence that is defined by its lack of human qualities and governed by rules we don’t understand.
The activity, in partnership with non-profit and youth organizations from Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, North Macedonia, Poland, and Turkey, will be held thanks to the support of the European Commission’s Erasmus+ program.
To find more information about this seminar, you can access the infopack HERE or email us at projectes@catalunyavoluntaria.cat
Lluc Martí