Latest news with #Papandreou
Euronews
6 days ago
- Politics
- Euronews
Socrates would question AI's role in democracy, says former Greek PM
In Plato's cave, humans watch silhouettes flicker on the wall, unaware that fires just behind them are distorting reality into a shadow world – not unlike the world we find ourselves in today, aided by social media and artificial intelligence (AI), argues the former Greek prime minister George Papandreou. According to Plato's scenario, if someone escaped the cave, their eyes would be overwhelmed by the sunlight, but once adjusted, they would see the world for what it truly is. However, the escapee would not be able to rescue the others, because they would be unable to convince them to leave the cave. Though Plato wrote his cave allegory around 380 BC, he may as well have been writing today about the future of democracy and AI, according to Papandreou, who served as Greece's prime minister from 2009 to 2011 and is a current MP of the Hellenic Parliament. 'Plato is saying we can get very much stuck into these worlds and think it's a reality, and [become] very, very reactive to any kind of change that may happen,' Papandreou told Euronews Next at the United Nations' AI For Good Summit in Geneva. Despite the tech industry's push to position AI as the foundation of all human knowledge, Papandreou thinks Plato would see AI not as the sunlight outside the cave but as the shadows inside: intriguing and persuasive – but misleading, and far from the truth. That doesn't mean AI won't continue to have a major impact on the real world, though, according to Papandreou. 'AI is impacting our culture,' he said. 'It's the way we think about the world, the way that we communicate, and our culture is also, I would add, our political culture in a democracy'. Socrates' possible take on AI Plato's mentor Socrates, a staunch defender of knowledge and wisdom, called out the flaws of democracy and was ultimately killed for it. In one discussion between Socrates and the orator Giorgias – who trained young people how to debate and win arguments in order to gain power – Socrates argued that people should debate respectfully with the goal of understanding each other, rather than bully others to win arguments. There's a close parallel with today's debates on the impact AI will have on social media platforms, Papandreou said. He questioned whether social media platforms 'help for real debate or do they push polarisation? Or with our likes, our thumbs up, our thumbs down – is it trying to dominate? Is it bullying? Is it polarising?' Papandreou believes that in today's world, Socrates would interrogate AI's role in society, including its purpose, whether it will help create a just society or put power into the hands of only a few people, and whether it promotes the truth and furthers our understanding of the world. Socrates's answer, Papandreou believes, would be that today there are many paradoxes and threats to democracy – including AI. 'On the one hand we say [the] internet, and of course AI, [are] democratising, on the other hand we have it highly centralised, so who controls the algorithms, and who owns AI?' 'One of the ideas that democracy was invented was to make sure that power is not concentrated,' he added. Applying lessons of the Ancient Greeks Papandreou believes governments today should take a leaf out of Ancient Greece's book, where citizens met to debate and vote on proposals in one of the earliest examples of the democratic process. Today, that could look like a government platform for every citizen to debate issues such as AI. This would give everyone a voice, including women and migrants, to let them have a say in policy and no decision by the government would be decided without this deliberative process. In ancient Athens, there were admittedly fewer citizens, who could sit across the Acropolis and be heard. However, with today's population this becomes trickier. Given today's world population outpaces ancient Athens' by a wide margin, Papandreou said a modern version could be an online platform that allows citizens to debate issues such as AI and sends feedback to governments, giving everyone a voice in policymaking. Such tools would need to be thoroughly vetted, he said, and should be used to empower citizens – not for surveillance. But in an age of information overload and claims that AI knows everything, it's not just governments that can learn from the Greek philosophers' approach. Studies show that AI may be eroding people's critical thinking skills – which Socrates and Plato certainly would not have gotten behind, Papandreou argues. 'I think that's where we need to be, not be a brain to store information, but to be a brain that thinks about the information we're getting and understand what might be valid or may not be,' he said. Humility may be another key to using these tools effectively. In one story from Plato's Apology text, Socrates decides to investigate his reputation as the wisest person in Ancient Greece. He questions politicians and artists – only to discover that those who claim to have knowledge actually know less than they think. Plato instructs us that if we acknowledge how little we know, we have more space for questions, dialogue, and true understanding. Perhaps in the AI era, Socrates' best-known quote may be more relevant than ever: 'The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing'.
Euractiv
08-07-2025
- Business
- Euractiv
Greek MEPs demand tariff-free trade in medicines as new deadline looms
Despite President Trump's short pause on higher-rate tariff announcements, now scheduled for 1 August, Greek MEPs from across the chamber are warning of the potential impact on patients and transatlantic supply chains. They are calling for a coordinated EU response. European Union officials have signalled a willingness to consider a US proposal for a uniform 10 per cent tariff on a broad range of exports. However, Brussels is seeking carve-outs from existing or proposed sector-specific levies, particularly those targeting pharmaceuticals, alcoholic beverages, semiconductors and commercial aircraft, reports Bloomberg. Dimitrios Tsiodras, an MEP of the New Democracy ruling party (EPP), and Nikos Papandreou, a PASOK MEP (S&D) and member of the SANT committee, both argue that imposing tariffs on medicines would have serious consequences for patient access and public health. They emphasise the need for a clear and principled EU response to prevent long-term damage. Threat to supply and patients' access Tsiodras told Euractiv, '[...] we now need a mutually beneficial trade deal,' adding that the Commission should communicate clearly to the U.S. administration that, due to the high level of interdependence in this sector, imposing tariffs could seriously disrupt supply chains and lead to medicine shortages For Papandreou, public health must take precedence over trade disputes. 'Our response should reflect both our values and our commitment to resilient, patient-centred healthcare systems,' he told Euractiv, calling tariffs on medicines "an attack on public health," which must be unequivocally rejected. 'These measures pose a direct threat to patients' access to essential treatments and risk undermining the transatlantic pharmaceutical supply chain,' he warned. According to Papandreou, all medical technologies should be exempt from any such protectionist measures as they are not just products; "they are vital instruments of care that patients depend on every day.' Call to the Commission Tsiodras said the Commission should press for pharmaceutical products to be exempt from any tariffs to ensure the availability of medicines for Greek and European patients. 'Alongside the social and health implications, we must also consider that we want an agreement that ensures the viability of the pharmaceutical sector, which, as the second-largest export sector, makes a crucial contribution to the European economy,' he stressed. Papandreou argued that open and rules-based trade should be defended, while strengthening Europe's capacity to innovate and produce strategically important medicines. 'To that effect, I have already lent my support to the cross-party letter addressed to the European Commission, urging a firm and principled response to the U.S. administration's proposed tariffs on medicines,' he explained. Edited by (bm)
Forbes
23-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Bond Market Is Revolting - Will There Be A Debt Crisis?
TOPSHOT - Students clash with riot police in front of the Greek Parliament during a demonstration ... More against the government's plans for private universities, in Athens, on February 1, 2024. (Photo by Angelos TZORTZINIS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELOS TZORTZINIS/AFP via Getty Images) In 2013 President George W. Bush referred to the Greeks as 'Grecians'. At the time the 'mis-speaks' of the second Bush president provoked much amusement and some concern, though by comparison to the current occupant of the White House, the author of the disastrous invasion of Iraq is a strategic genius. The 'Grecians' came to mind this week when tuning into commentary by the Japanese prime minister Shigeru Ishiba who compared his country's fiscal situation to Greece in the early 2010's as he rejected calls for tax cuts. By the staid standard of Japanese political pronouncements this is controversial and will help draw attention to the rise in Japanese interest rates in the past two weeks. Ishiba's comments are a harbinger of what is to come as we head into the 'Age of Debt', an era where indebtedness will dominate politics, economics and geopolitics. I have spent enough time in Greece over the years to know how brutally painful the consequences of austerity were, and how reckless economic policy had become in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Indeed, I recall the late years of the (Andreas) Papandreou period, when the social debate in Athens revolved around his younger, second wife 'Mimi'. Papandreou was a very interesting character, and an example I often deploy to show that an education in economics is no guarantee of good policy – before he entered politics Papandreou was the Dean of the economics faculty at Stanford. Often a finance minister will need political as well as policy skills. In his book, Stress Test, Tim Geithner, who was appointed Treasury Secretary by President Obama and who as head of the New York Fed had very good technical skills, worried aloud that he did not have the political skills for the role (arguably Robert Rubin was the master here) and the Obama team spent some time coaching him in this field. There is a small but interesting literature on the backgrounds of finance ministers, which hypothesises that more left leaning governments (like Obama?) will choose economics experts to bolster their economic credibility, while right leaning governments often choose a finance minister with a financial services background – Donald Trump's two Treasury Secretaries, Steven Mnuchin (ex Goldman Sachs banker) and Scott Bessent (hedge fund manager who worked with George Soros for some time) fit this profile. The point of my dragging up the cv's of finance ministers is to state that difficult times are ahead, and will require political courage and policy acumen, most of all in the US as President Trump takes aim at the budget deficit. Unfortunately, his lead policy manoeuvre on tariffs have shown that he has neither of these attributes. In the US, President Trump has driven hard to have his budget (Big, Beautiful Bill) passed by Congress. It contains some elements that are quite sinister such as the ending of an excise tax on gun silencers, and one particular policy I agree strongly with – the introduction of MAGA (Money Account for Growth and Advancement), whereby the Treasury would create tax preferred savings accounts for children and give each one an initial deposit of USD 1,000. Europe should do the same! However, the broad strokes of the budget look like they could rob many Americans of what they need most, notably MEDICAID. Worryingly from an economic point of view the budget is expected to add nearly USD 3.5 trillion to the budget deficit over the next ten years, according to a range of bodies from the Penn Wharton Budget Model to the Joint Committee on Taxation, and the implication is that the indebtedness of the US will rise further (estimates point to a historic debt to GDP ratio of 125% in ten years' time). The Congressional Budget Office publishes an intimidating chart that puts this in perspective and shows that the debt to GDP ratio in the US has only been higher (going all the way back to 1790) in the post-World War II period. This is the daunting backdrop to two poor bond auctions last week (demand for US and Japanese bonds was well below the norm). In this respect, the case of Greece is instructive – notably the devastating effect of forced austerity, the difficulty in trying to make policy when a government has lost the confidence of markets and the reality that once this confidence is lost, it can take time to regain it. Ultimately, Greece was a small economy in the scheme of things, though its membership of the euro made it systematically important. The US and Japan are on a different scale altogether. We are all Grecians now.
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Costas Simitis, Greek leader who stabilised the economy and paved the way for the 2004 Olympics
Costas Simitis, who has died aged 88, was the prime minister who bolstered Greece's self-esteem by taking it into the eurozone and preparing Athens for the 2004 Olympic Games, sealing the country's reintegration into the international community and removing what remained of the stain of military rule between 1967 and 1974. During his eight years as head of the socialist PASOK government he stabilised an economy which under Andreas Papandreou had suffered from high inflation, a near tripling of public debt and average annual growth of below one per cent. Although Simitis's economic data were questioned by the conservative New Democracy government which took power in 2004, he did succeed in reducing inflation and debt and in boosting growth. With modernisation as its byword, his programme was based on extensive public investment and economic and labour reforms, including part-privatisation, particularly in the banking sector, of a heavily statist economy. These changes enabled the country to fully substitute the euro for the drachma in 2002. The hosting of the Olympics, which took place shortly after Simitis had resigned, was seen as a welcome homecoming in the country of its birthplace and its inaugural revival in 1896. But the legacy of these achievements undid much of the kudos gained from them, and presented the European Union with its greatest crisis to date. Greece was found to have falsified its finances to join the eurozone, with a budget deficit much more than the three per cent of GDP permitted and public debt exceeding 100 per cent, far above the 60 per cent limit. During the global banking crisis of 2009 and its aftermath, the state of Greece's public finances would lead to the reduction of the country's sovereign debt to junk status; repeated bail-outs from the International Monetary fund (IMF) and the European Union, with draconian austerity measures as a quid pro quo; the eruption on to the political scene in 2015 of the Left-wing, anti-austerity party Syriza, breaking the dominance of PASOK and New Democracy; and Greece becoming the first developed nation to default to the IMF. A taste of the suffering to come had already been evident in 2005, when the European Commission put Greece under fiscal monitoring after the state had spent more than €9 billion on the Olympics, pushing the deficit to over six per cent and the debt to more than 110 per cent of GDP. It was also during Simitis's time in office that the Treaty of Accession of Cyprus to the EU was signed, a step which was championed by the Greek government but which virtually destroyed any chance of reunification with the Turkish-occupied north of the island. Both Papandreou and Simitis were academics-turned-politicians who were forced into exile by their opposition to the Greek military junta. Papandreou, an economist, was arrested by the colonels and charged with treason, then released to go into exile in Sweden and Canada. Simitis, who taught law, left for Germany after planting bombs on the streets of Athens. He became a member of the Panhellenic Liberation Movement, founded by Papandreou, and after returning to Greece in 1974 co-founded the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) with Papandreou. Under Papandreou, Simitis held the portfolio of agriculture from 1981 to 1985, of the economy from 1985 to 1987 and of industry, energy, research and technology from 1993 to 1995. For less than three months, in 1989-90, he was education and religious affairs minister under the interim non-party leadership of Xenophon Zolotas. Simitis's wide ministerial experience made him a leading candidate to succeed Papandreou when the latter resigned due to ill health in January 1996. PASOK MPs elected him prime minister, with Papandreou remaining head of the party until his death in June. Simitis succeeded him in that post before leading PASOK to victory in a general election in September, when it won 162 of the 300 seats. A further victory, by a narrower margin, followed in 2000. When he stepped down in 2004, he had completed the longest continuous term of any modern Greek prime minister, though Papandreou, over three terms, had been longer in power. Despite their shared experience, the two men were very different, and relations between them were strained. Papandreou was part-populist, part-visionary, stirring hearts and minds with his inflammatory rhetoric; he was also capricious and ill-disciplined. By comparison, Simitis was respected as competent but seen as dull. The reputations of both suffered because of corruption within their administrations. The most notorious cases under Simitis, to do with arms purchases, inculpated his defence minister, Akis Tsochatzopoulos, who in 2013 was sentenced to 20 years in prison for money-laundering. In January 2004, with PASOK support collapsing, Simitis announced that he would resign as party leader and not stand for re-election as prime minister in the forthcoming parliamentary poll. He was succeeded in the first post by George Papandreou, the foreign minister and son of Andreas, who lost the elections in March to New Democracy under Kostas Karamanlis. Konstantinos Georghiu Simitis was born on June 23 1936 in Piraeus to Georgios, a professor of economic and commercial sciences in Athens, and Fani Christopoulou, a feminist activist. His elder brother Spiros, who died in 2023 and spent most of his life as a jurist in Germany, was known as 'the father of data protection'. Costas attended the University of Marburg in Germany and the London School of Economics and returned to Greece in 1965. There, he was one of the founding members of a political research group which after the military coup in April 1967 became Democratic Defence, in opposition to the junta. It was then that he was involved in bomb-planting, an activity he would acknowledge much later on Greek television. He served as agriculture minister without being an MP, then was elected to parliament in 1985, for Piraeus, remaining until 2009. He resigned as economy minister in 1987 because he felt that Papandreou was undermining the austerity programme which he, Simitis, had been appointed to implement. Another disagreement with the prime minister in 1995 led to his giving up the industry portfolio. Relations were no easier between Simitis and Papandreou's son, George, with whom he fell out over the latter's wish to hold a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon, which gave the EU a full legal personality, enabling it to sign international treaties. Before resigning as an MP, Simitis warned, correctly, that financial profligacy would result in an austerity regime being imposed by the IMF. Simitis is survived by his wife, Daphne, née Arkadiou, like him a student at the LSE, whom he married in 1964. They had two daughters. Costas Simitis, born June 23 1936, died January 5 2025
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Costas Simitis, Greek leader who stabilised the economy and paved the way for the 2004 Olympics
Costas Simitis, who has died aged 88, was the prime minister who bolstered Greece's self-esteem by taking it into the eurozone and preparing Athens for the 2004 Olympic Games, sealing the country's reintegration into the international community and removing what remained of the stain of military rule between 1967 and 1974. During his eight years as head of the socialist PASOK government he stabilised an economy which under Andreas Papandreou had suffered from high inflation, a near tripling of public debt and average annual growth of below one per cent. Although Simitis's economic data were questioned by the conservative New Democracy government which took power in 2004, he did succeed in reducing inflation and debt and in boosting growth. With modernisation as its byword, his programme was based on extensive public investment and economic and labour reforms, including part-privatisation, particularly in the banking sector, of a heavily statist economy. These changes enabled the country to fully substitute the euro for the drachma in 2002. The hosting of the Olympics, which took place shortly after Simitis had resigned, was seen as a welcome homecoming in the country of its birthplace and its inaugural revival in 1896. But the legacy of these achievements undid much of the kudos gained from them, and presented the European Union with its greatest crisis to date. Greece was found to have falsified its finances to join the eurozone, with a budget deficit much more than the three per cent of GDP permitted and public debt exceeding 100 per cent, far above the 60 per cent limit. During the global banking crisis of 2009 and its aftermath, the state of Greece's public finances would lead to the reduction of the country's sovereign debt to junk status; repeated bail-outs from the International Monetary fund (IMF) and the European Union, with draconian austerity measures as a quid pro quo; the eruption on to the political scene in 2015 of the Left-wing, anti-austerity party Syriza, breaking the dominance of PASOK and New Democracy; and Greece becoming the first developed nation to default to the IMF. A taste of the suffering to come had already been evident in 2005, when the European Commission put Greece under fiscal monitoring after the state had spent more than €9 billion on the Olympics, pushing the deficit to over six per cent and the debt to more than 110 per cent of GDP. It was also during Simitis's time in office that the Treaty of Accession of Cyprus to the EU was signed, a step which was championed by the Greek government but which virtually destroyed any chance of reunification with the Turkish-occupied north of the island. Both Papandreou and Simitis were academics-turned-politicians who were forced into exile by their opposition to the Greek military junta. Papandreou, an economist, was arrested by the colonels and charged with treason, then released to go into exile in Sweden and Canada. Simitis, who taught law, left for Germany after planting bombs on the streets of Athens. He became a member of the Panhellenic Liberation Movement, founded by Papandreou, and after returning to Greece in 1974 co-founded the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) with Papandreou. Under Papandreou, Simitis held the portfolio of agriculture from 1981 to 1985, of the economy from 1985 to 1987 and of industry, energy, research and technology from 1993 to 1995. For less than three months, in 1989-90, he was education and religious affairs minister under the interim non-party leadership of Xenophon Zolotas. Simitis's wide ministerial experience made him a leading candidate to succeed Papandreou when the latter resigned due to ill health in January 1996. PASOK MPs elected him prime minister, with Papandreou remaining head of the party until his death in June. Simitis succeeded him in that post before leading PASOK to victory in a general election in September, when it won 162 of the 300 seats. A further victory, by a narrower margin, followed in 2000. When he stepped down in 2004, he had completed the longest continuous term of any modern Greek prime minister, though Papandreou, over three terms, had been longer in power. Despite their shared experience, the two men were very different, and relations between them were strained. Papandreou was part-populist, part-visionary, stirring hearts and minds with his inflammatory rhetoric; he was also capricious and ill-disciplined. By comparison, Simitis was respected as competent but seen as dull. The reputations of both suffered because of corruption within their administrations. The most notorious cases under Simitis, to do with arms purchases, inculpated his defence minister, Akis Tsochatzopoulos, who in 2013 was sentenced to 20 years in prison for money-laundering. In January 2004, with PASOK support collapsing, Simitis announced that he would resign as party leader and not stand for re-election as prime minister in the forthcoming parliamentary poll. He was succeeded in the first post by George Papandreou, the foreign minister and son of Andreas, who lost the elections in March to New Democracy under Kostas Karamanlis. Konstantinos Georghiu Simitis was born on June 23 1936 in Piraeus to Georgios, a professor of economic and commercial sciences in Athens, and Fani Christopoulou, a feminist activist. His elder brother Spiros, who died in 2023 and spent most of his life as a jurist in Germany, was known as 'the father of data protection'. Costas attended the University of Marburg in Germany and the London School of Economics and returned to Greece in 1965. There, he was one of the founding members of a political research group which after the military coup in April 1967 became Democratic Defence, in opposition to the junta. It was then that he was involved in bomb-planting, an activity he would acknowledge much later on Greek television. He served as agriculture minister without being an MP, then was elected to parliament in 1985, for Piraeus, remaining until 2009. He resigned as economy minister in 1987 because he felt that Papandreou was undermining the austerity programme which he, Simitis, had been appointed to implement. Another disagreement with the prime minister in 1995 led to his giving up the industry portfolio. Relations were no easier between Simitis and Papandreou's son, George, with whom he fell out over the latter's wish to hold a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon, which gave the EU a full legal personality, enabling it to sign international treaties. Before resigning as an MP, Simitis warned, correctly, that financial profligacy would result in an austerity regime being imposed by the IMF. Simitis is survived by his wife, Daphne, née Arkadiou, like him a student at the LSE, whom he married in 1964. They had two daughters. Costas Simitis, born June 23 1936, died January 5 2025 Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. 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