I know people who love artificial intelligence. According to them, it is the inevitable, the future, and whoever does not adapt to it. One of the wisest teachings I have had about this advancement of humanity, I heard from the philosopher Fernando Savater when, at the end of a conference, a boy in the classroom of the Cervantes school in Bogotá called him old and outdated; and he told her that young people should only worry about artificial intelligence.
Savater very calmly agreed with him; but he warned her that the intelligent machines created by man, no matter how perfect they were, would never have infancy or awareness of death. I am very afraid that the pedantic boy did not understand the thing, but whoever has half a brain would do well to stay with this reflection.
And especially developers and creators of applications for companies would do well. I am going to point out one in particular in Colombia: TIGO. I have been trying to unsubscribe since October of last year, to cancel a contracted service with this cell phone company, and it has been impossible for me. I apologize for setting an example. But it is that the incomprehensible jargon, the lack of logic, the design of a portal designed to serve all types of customers; even those of us who are long out of being in our twenties, it's infuriating.
Yes, I know, someone will tell me that what is behind it is a system that aims to dissuade you from dispensing with the services of that company. But I ask: What part of “I don't need it” don't you understand? There may be a lot of corporate politics, another part is bad design. And if computer scientists think I'm stupid because I don't know how to use their programs, I have the right to think that they aren't very good, and that the best ones have already been hired by Indian companies to work remotely. As it is actually happening.
The problem is not technology, the problem is those portals and web pages designed by some idiots engrossed with incomprehensible jargon, for whom the rest of us should have computer knowledge by infused science. And this happens at all levels: in banks, on government websites, in those of public bodies and entities where the public needs to go for information, to carry out all sorts of telematic procedures. And more and more often.
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The problem is not unique to Colombia. Last month, a Spanish doctor named Carlos San Juan thanked on an Internet portal the fifty people who had supported his idea of asking banks to treat the elderly humanely. Today Dr. San Juan has almost half a million signatories calling for humanity from banking institutions. And as a consequence of his initiative, the governor of the Bank of Spain promised to meet with representatives of the main banks in the country so that their offices are treated humanely; so that they end the pathetic spectacle of a perplexed person in front of devices they don't know how to handle or with the humiliating “let a grandson help you enter our page”.
Also the Portuguese government - I read it in the press this week - has decided to take action on the matter. It has launched, through the Ministry of Economy and Digital Transition, the Eu sou digital (I am digital) program, a digital training program for adults that aims to bring a million Portuguese considered “info-excluded” closer to the virtual world. A group of 30,000 volunteers is tasked with bringing knowledge to the beneficiaries of the program. But it is understood that on the other hand, the government puts the same effort into making computer scientists design programs that are increasingly accessible to the entire population, not only to the new generations, who today have the rudiments of the digital world since they give their first Steps.
In this sense, it is fair to recognize that in Colombia the initiative of Bancolombia's banking correspondents, which at least in Antioquia, are found everywhere, makes things easier for users. In shopping centers, small establishments and even neighborhood stores, people can carry out simple operations with the intermediation of a human being on the other side of a window or a counter, which is much appreciated.
Another thing will be if this bank falls into the hands of those who now seek to enter its shareholding with the financial muscle of Arab investors. I dare to predict the disappearance of these facilities. Time to time.