161 Madeira Consorcio meeting 18.7.2026

We met in the Gallery and saw this video:

What AI can’t do—and why you can | Svetlana Makarova

Svetlana lists five human margins that AI cannot ever have or replace: Humans have

• Experiences
• Inspiration for dreams
• Social Acuity and reading
• Emotional Courage
• Imagination and memories

We were not sure if the speaker is not too optimistic. Humans have to use their brains. The brain is like a muscle. It needs to be used and challenged to stay up to speed. Social Media and ChatGPT etc. change that.

C. said that AI cannot produce real art. It may be able to reproduce it but such art does not transport emotions. The AI “product” may, however, cause resonance in the viewer. The Rolling Stones made a new album, and for the respective video, AI was used to make them look younger. This has also been applied in some movies. (ABBA).

A talk show host in Germany said that that young people can, based on certain formulations (comparisons for example) discern the use of AI in a text Older folks may not be able to see this. Software to detect AI use in texts is also available today.

We used to be upset if a politician was found out to have copied text from other works for their doctorate. Now AI is a lot more involved and hard to discern.

A newspaper A in Germany accepted a guest article from a scientist. It was found to be written with the use of AI. The editors decided to not accept such pieces in the future. Then the boss of Newspaper B wrote an excellent response, defending AI, and at the bottom, mentioned that this nice piece of journalism had been written with the help of AI: AI cannot be discerned easily.

AI will invent answers if it cannot find one in its database. AI developers can set the rule that AI must not invent anything in a response. In that case, it has to abide by it.

AI logarithms are so vast by now that, once AI gives an answer, no human being, not even another AI, can follow the logical chain the answer is based on. Meaning: Even if regulation were still possible, no AI product can be trusted to give proper information, let alone guidance.

Elections were manipulated in New York, as was Brexit (by Russia). AI is a tool here but the guilt lies with humans who apply it for bad motives. In these cases, money is applied to manipulate public opinion. Money always wins.

China is limiting money contributions to politicians. Other countries may follow suit to avoid that money “buys” an election.

The Social Media limit for children is very important because with the progress of AI, children may lose the ability to think for themselves, and to really properly acquire knowledge.

Resistance is growing toward AI because people come to understand that AI uses massive amounts of electricity and water in their area, without giving them jobs or good value for the money.

We as individuals have the choice to pick our news sources. We can pay for a renowned newspaper and deliberately ignore the fluff Social Media try to push under our noses. In medicine, AI is good as diagnostic tool, often doing a better job than human beings, but nothing else.

There is an AI race on between China and the US, and both sides believe they cannot stop or limit their AI, in order not to lose against the other country.

And anything we humans can think of, can be put into reality. The Neanderthal people would not have known what to make of an air plane. We can think of robots which can be turned into warriors (The Lord of the Rings), then this can become a reality.

We couldn’t come up with a last positive thought so we went for dinner!