Will AI ever reach Superintelligence?

Published on July 10, 2025 · Duration 01:01:06

Hold onto your neural networks, folks, because this week on Bootstrapped for Cash, your hosts Giorgio Azzinnaro and Iván Peña, along with special guests Mauro Foresti and Juan Sanz, dove headfirst into the swirling, sparking, and sometimes hilarious world of Artificial Intelligence! Get ready for a conversation that’s as thought-provoking as it is entertaining, because in “Will AI ever reach Superintelligence?”, we’re asking the big questions and getting some even bigger answers.

Meet Our Brainy Guests (Who Aren’t AI… Yet!)

Joining Giorgio and Iván for this epic discussion are two minds sharper than a well-coded algorithm:

• Mauro Foresti, PhD in biomechanics from ETH Zurich and now Chief Architect in the financial industry. Check out his insights on LinkedIn: Mauro Foresti.
• Juan Sanz, Solutions Architect specialized in Machine Learning at a major Big Tech company. Connect with Juan here: Juan Sanz.

These two brought the expertise, while Giorgio and Iván brought the existential dread (and some technical issues, as usual – but hey, that’s what makes it human!).

Can AI Be Truly Creative (Or Just Really Good at Copy-Pasting)?

The episode kicks off with a bang, pondering if AI can genuinely be creative. Mauro, channeling the “godfather of AI,” suggests creativity might just be about finding weird analogies between things. If our brains have 100 trillion connections and AI has 1 trillion, then AI has to be extra creative to squeeze all that knowledge in, right? It’s like fitting an elephant into a phone booth – you gotta get imaginative!

Juan, however, reminds us that human creativity is tangled up with experience, emotions, and empathy. While AI can mimic, it’s not actually feeling anything. Giorgio chimed in with a truly profound observation: AI is terrible at jokes. If an AI has to explain why its joke is funny, it probably wasn’t a good joke to begin with! So, while AI can paint a Picasso-esque masterpiece, it still can’t tell a knock-knock joke without making you cringe. Phew, our comedic careers are safe for now!

AI’s Speed Bumps: Energy, Ethics, and Why Your Fridge Isn’t Chatting Yet

Next up, the crew tackles the nitty-gritty: AI’s technical limitations. Juan laid out the cold, hard facts: training these massive models is an energy guzzler, requiring the annual consumption of 1000 US houses for something like GPT-4! Plus, we’re running low on compute resources and struggling to get AI running on your smartwatch (because who doesn’t want their fridge to suggest recipes?). Mauro even pondered if we could train AI in a distributed way, like a global brain-trust of idle devices.

But it’s not all about kilowatts; ethics are a huge concern. Juan highlights the EU’s strong push for regulation to ensure AI innovation is secure. And while we’re talking about regulation, Giorgio points out that current AI models learn in “bubbles” – they’re trained, then they run inference, and then poof, your brilliant input is gone until the next training cycle. Unlike kids (or adults who refuse to stop learning), AI isn’t continuously absorbing and evolving in real-time.

The Luxury of Imperfection: Will Handmade Become the New Gold?

In a world drowning in AI-generated perfection, the podcast asks a fascinating question: will human-made, imperfect products become the ultimate status symbol? Juan is all-in, arguing that customized, unique, and scarce items (like handcrafted boots or a bespoke guitar) will soar in value. Think Ferrari, but for your feet!

Mauro agrees, emphasizing that our imperfections are what make us human, and we’ll always seek out that “fingerprint” of humanity in things. He beautifully connects this to Picasso’s “Guernica,” suggesting its power comes from the shared human feelings of suffering it evokes, feelings an AI simply can’t replicate (or at least, not yet!). Giorgio brings it home to software, noting that while AI can churn out countless CRMs, true value lies in software that builds communities and truly understands a niche. It’s about the human connection, not just the code.

The Great Brain Drain: Is AI Making Us Dumber or Just Lazier?

Finally, the gang dives into the terrifying possibility of “cognitive sedentarism.” Mauro posits that “nature is minimalistic” – if you don’t use it, you lose it! Relying on AI for decisions might make you a pro at prompting AI, but terrible at making decisions. Juan, drawing from his experience learning German, argues that the “trauma” of needing to speak a new language (like, say, to get food in a foreign country) is what forces your brain to adapt and truly learn. If AI does all the heavy lifting, you miss out on cultural nuances and critical thinking development.

Giorgio, ever the pragmatist, sees AI as a superpower for tasks he could never do himself, like translating ancient Greek. But he also admits a fear of losing basic skills, much like he might struggle to navigate a library without Google today.

Don’t Miss Part Two!

This was just Part One of a truly mind-bending conversation! The future of AI is complex, fascinating, and maybe a little bit scary, but one thing’s for sure: it’s anything but boring. So, if you’re ready to continue this journey into superintelligence, critical thinking, and whether your bespoke, handcrafted socks will be worth a fortune, then you absolutely must tune in next week for the conclusion!

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