In Casablanca, Ignacio Ramonet captivated his audience by discussing the silent revolution that artificial intelligence represents for journalism, comparing its impact to that of Gutenberg's printing press. In a world where certainties are wavering, he poses the question: what becomes of the truth when machines partake in human reasoning? DR ‹ › The team behind Al Bayane chose not to meet its audience in the plush lounges of a Casablanca hotel, but at the heart of the Hassan II Mosque Foundation. From the amphitheater's large windows, the majestic mosque stretched into view. Inside, whispers faded into silence as the audience waited for Ignacio Ramonet to speak. He was returning to his adopted country after years spent between Europe and Latin America, where he moved among left-wing leaders, particularly in Cuba and Venezuela. In Casablanca, on Wednesday, April 15, the 83-year-old journalist did not come to deliver just another lecture. He came to highlight a profound and unsettling shift, one that quietly reshapes societies until its effects become unmistakably visible. From Gutenberg to Artificial Intelligence, a similar shock The theme may have sounded familiar: journalism facing the challenge of artificial intelligence and the search for truth. But Ramonet immediately stepped back from the immediacy of the topic, opting instead for a long historical perspective. What we are witnessing today, he argued, is not merely a technological shift, but a rupture comparable to the one triggered by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century. Back then, the industrialization of writing upended societies. Today, we are entering an era defined by the industrialization of reasoning itself. The comparison is striking. Each transformation in communication tools has brought about political change. Printing preceded the rise of the press, which in turn fueled societies in motion. The French Revolution, he noted, would not have unfolded in the same way without the widespread circulation and debate of printed ideas. Progress then accelerated. The telegraph compressed time, photography reshaped perception, and electricity paved the way for radio and later television. Each innovation redefined the boundaries of reality. Ramonet insisted, however, that mass media did not emerge overnight. For a long time, the press remained a medium of opinion reserved for a literate minority. It was only after the 1950s that the concept of «mass» took on its modern meaning. In the meantime, key works helped shape a more precise understanding of «public opinion», a term that did not exist before Walter Lippmann's 1922 book on the subject. Edward Bernays followed with Propaganda. Together, these works laid the groundwork for what Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman would later describe as the «manufacturing of consent» in their 1988 book. This trajectory is far from abstract. Nazism itself, Ramonet recalled, fits within this evolution. Adolf Hitler's regime quickly grasped the power of radio in the 1930s, a medium capable of addressing both individuals and the masses simultaneously. Bernays' Propaganda reportedly served as a reference for Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda. When machines begin to think When turning to the present, Ramonet neither indulged in alarmism nor fascination. Instead, he observed that widespread fears of surveillance often obscure a simpler reality: we willingly expose ourselves. Smartphones, social media, and what Guy Debord called the «society of the spectacle» have transformed us into billions of «Little Brothers» serving Big Brother. He described a world that is at once Orwellian and Huxleyan, one where control no longer relies solely on coercion, but also on consent, even pleasure. The quest for truth: a parenthesis in journalism's history Ramonet then advanced a provocative idea: we have entered a post-media era. Television, once central, is losing ground. In the United States, the most-watched platform is no longer a traditional network like CBS or NBC, but YouTube. The center has dissolved. In this fragmented landscape, shaken by rapid technological change and the rise of artificial intelligence, journalism itself is faltering. Ramonet described a shift from journalism «before truth» (the period prior to the two World Wars) to «post-truth» journalism. As if the rigorous pursuit of truth had been only a brief parenthesis in the long history of information. The audience listened in silence. Each person seemed to grasp, however faintly, the weight of this idea: not the end of journalism, but the end of its certainties. Outside, Casablanca carried on. Lights flickered on across the city as the muezzin's call to Maghreb prayer echoed from the Hassan II Mosque. And in this city open to the world, one question lingered: what becomes of truth when machines begin to think for us?
