Sofía is a 12-year-old seventh-grade student living with her mother and two brothers in an urban area of Chile. She is the middle child, and she has grown up as a heavy technology user — her computer is, in her words, “an infinite network of intelligence.” When she thinks about AI and robots, her mind goes to aeronautics and space as much as to everyday devices, and she arrived at the interview already curious, already opening her own curiosity further after watching a documentary about robotics in class.
A Child Who Watches, Reads, and Wonders
Sofía came to this interview with more background knowledge than she gives herself credit for. She says she feels “a bit lost” regarding AI and robots, but her references — WALL-E, documentary footage of changing robotic mechanisms, the concept of exoskeletons — tell a different story. She identifies the terms “AI” and “robots” as deeply intertwined: “they both lead you to almost the same point.” She does not trust AI at one hundred percent, because she believes the systems that make it work are not yet fully understood, even by experts. For any deployment of these technologies, she thinks expert review is essential. But she also sees what AI can do that nothing else can: “every day they help you see a new part and perspective of something we didn’t know.”
Her Dream: Medicine, Technology, and the Planet
Sofía’s clearest dream for 2050 is to be a general practitioner. What excites her about that future is the possibility of medicine and technology being “intertwined” — a doctor practising at the junction of human care and intelligent tools. Beyond her own career, she imagines a society shaped by solidarity as much as technology, and she is particularly focused on the environment: she pictures robots continuously cleaning and sorting the waste that humans carelessly discard, turning recyclable materials back into something useful. The gap between what we could recycle and what we actually do troubles her.
Where AI and Robots Belong
Sofía is broadly in favour of robot assistance in caregiving settings. She supports robots helping with children — “if they take care of me too while I’m at it” — framing it not as replacement for human care but as practical support that frees families from hiring additional help. She even says she would come to think of such a robot “as family.” She is more sceptical about robots caring for pets, reasoning that animals can largely take care of themselves and the added value is unclear. For teaching, she is enthusiastic: a robot that could hold near-infinite knowledge and guide a student through all the material for a test strikes her as genuinely valuable. She also sees AI as potentially more accurate than humans in healthcare diagnostics, given the volume of data it can process, and faster in triage.
Caution About Decision-Making
One of Sofía’s more original concerns is about AI’s thoroughness rather than its fallibility. Where others worry that machines will make mistakes, she worries that AI might be so thorough — so complete in its analysis — that humans struggle to keep up or push back. Decision-making processes affected by automation are not necessarily worse, she argues, but they may be harder to contest. She also connects AI and robotics to clean energy and non-polluting technology — for her, intelligent machines and environmental responsibility belong in the same conversation.
Learning Together, Building Together
Sofía’s vision of the future of work is genuinely collaborative: not humans replaced by machines, but each learning from the other. “They exchange information,” she says — and she means that literally. She expects AI to generate new jobs and reveal new functions faster than the human brain alone could conceive of them. At home, the division of labour she imagines is simple and appealing: the robot cleans while she studies. School, she believes, will be better — more online, more dynamic, more equipped with the technologies that match where the world is heading. Her overall attitude is warmly open: “I like it because the average human is becoming more modern and also learning more.”
