Among 590 high school students from across the country, Paulina Guerscovich, a fifth-year student at the Superior School of Commerce, was chosen by the Balseiro Institute.
Under the slogan "Artificial Intelligence: Reality and Fiction," the Balseiro Institute launched a call for high school students interested in interning at the institution and gaining access to the Bariloche Atomic Center and cutting-edge laboratories. In the initial phase, 136 essays from middle school students across the country were selected, followed by 48, and finally 15, based on academic background, grade point averages, and extracurricular activities. Among them was Paulina Guerscovich, a fifth-year student at the Superior School of Commerce.
The monograph he presented expresses, in its conclusion, that the way to combat the misuse or abuse of AI is to be more human than ever: “Fostering a life not encapsulated in screens is understanding the motus propria to discover, the joy of achieving something on our own. It is feeling. The euphoria, the pain, the fear, the longing; everything that cannot be predicted, quantified, or prompted, everything that makes us imperfect and unpredictable is what makes us human. No program, no matter how advanced, will be able to imitate human passion and vulnerability.”
For the production of this work, she received guidance and support from the Superior School of Commerce Professors María Laura Giannone, who was her academic tutor, Keila Tomás, Beatriz Schiffino, and María del Rosario González.
Paulina says she enjoys reading, but also math, accounting, physics, and chemistry, and that in this project she was able to combine her scientific and creative side. “I love artificial intelligence, everything it represents, that challenges things, that makes you reflect and question,” she says.
The Balseiro Institute's call for proposals on artificial intelligence, along with a series of trigger questions, seemed interesting to her, and she enjoyed developing the project. The first thing she did was write down what she knew about the topic and her personal opinion based on the seminars she had attended at school. The teachers then gave her material to read and research. "Something I'm passionate about is the topic of power, so I wanted to play with the idea of how we ourselves are giving power to artificial intelligence," she reflects.
The Higher Education student clarifies that she didn't use AI to complete the essay, and that while the essay initially only included her opinion in the conclusion, at the suggestion of her professors, she later used that personal tone throughout the text to make it less cold and "have a soul." The essay contains data, metaphors, and parallels between science and society, and plays with the themes of power and cognitive sedentarism.
His central thesis is that "artificial intelligence doesn't replace us; we become replaceable through a lack of curiosity, laziness, a culture of immediacy, a culture of having information at hand and a lack of effort." He acknowledges that "everyone is worried about artificial intelligence replacing us, but if you value your competencies as a person, a program inside a computer can't imitate us, no matter how fast it processes data."
Paulina believes the Superior School of Commerce has given her a lot, both personally and academically: "The truth is that it has challenged me and forced me to improve at all times because I had to learn to be organized, handle a lot of pressure, and truly understand concepts, not just grasp superficial or automatic knowledge," something she considers positive in a society that wants everything easy, fast, and halfway. "The Superior School is never halfway." She emphasizes that the UNR opened many doors for her and is grateful for the teaching, guidance, and support she received.
Journalist: Victoria Arrabal