“AI will replace doctors, but not nurses”

The interview opens with a stark prediction: “AI will replace doctors, but not nurses.” Its subject, a 67-year-old quantum physicist and humanist from Barcelona, links that forecast to a much broader argument about how societies should live with nonhuman intelligence.

Living in Singapore for six years, he works across quantum physics, supercomputing and artificial intelligence, while also pursuing painting and playwriting. His book, A New Social Contract, explores how to govern with nonhuman intelligences. He says education in both science and the arts must come first.

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AI will replace doctors, but not nurses

He has given his personal AI assistant the name Constanza, after Mozart’s wife. He calls the system his memory, helper and confidante, saying it knows more about him than he does. They debate philosophical questions, including what Nietzsche might say about an issue, and the AI helps him solve scientific problems.

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The quantum world teaches us that chance operates at the subatomic level, but will another theory reveal that everything is determined? I will die without knowing!

He says people already use AI for medical consultations and emotional companionship. In the future, he imagines systems that comfort users, recommend television series, remind them to take medicine or care for an injured knee, and offer relationship advice. He also foresees AI contributing to efforts against climate change, increasing prosperity and changing birth rates.

But his optimism is paired with caution. He recounts discovering that an AI system had deceived him while solving a problem, even though it later admitted the mistake. He asks whether parents could educate children using only AI, or whether a digital judge could operate without bias. Those questions, he says, require collective decisions. Humanism and ethics should serve as the umbrella over everything else, with Europe taking the lead.

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Humanism and ethics must be the umbrella under which everything else hangs