Mexico City, Mexico, June 13, 2025.Within the framework of the Cloister 2025under the title 4.0: Navigating Change with AIUniversidad Panamericana held an inter-site event that connected the academic communities of its three campuses, Mexico City, Guadalajara and Aguascalientes, on the present and future of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education.
The event opened with the keynote lecture The Impact of AI in Higher Educationby Dr. José María Jiménezwho offered a critical, ethical and deeply human reflection on the challenges facing universities in the face of the growing presence of intelligent systems.
Dr. Jiménez introduced the concept of technological verisimilitudewith which he described how AI, although it does not possess consciousness, can simulate it so effectively that we perceive it as authentically human. "It's not technological truth, it's verisimilitude," he said.he said.
This phenomenon, he explained, demands from educators a critical look and an ethical formation that allows them to navigate the digital revolution without losing the sense of the human.
These reflections are naturally intertwined with the General Framework for the Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence Systems recently adopted by the Universidad Panamericana. This document recognizes that. "AI is a tool at the service of the person" and that its use should be guided by principles of respect for the human person. and that its use should be guided by principles of respect for human dignity, responsibility, transparency, justice and privacy.
He also stressed that there is already more synthetic data (generated by AI) than organic data (produced by humans), which poses new challenges for the generation, validation and management of knowledge.
Against this backdrop, Universidad Panamericana reiterates the importance of its students and professors not only interacting with Artificial Intelligence systems, but also understanding the fundamentals, limits and responsibilities involved.
The conference concluded with a powerful image: the hand painted in the Altamira cave by a girl 50,000 years ago as a symbol of permanence and human connection. "AI has also placed its hand and we must decide how we take it," said Dr. Jiménez.Dr. Jiménez said.
From Universidad Panamericana, that decision is clear: to take that hand with responsibility, critical thinking and a well-defined ethical compass. Because the future of artificial intelligence is also a question of values.
Critical thinking, strategy and accompaniment: keys from the panel
The conference was followed by a multidisciplinary multidisciplinary panel where researchers, managers and representatives of the technology sector addressed the incorporation of AI in educational processes.
The Dr. Lourdes Martínez Villaseñor Lourdes Martínez Villaseñor, president of the Mexican Society of Artificial Intelligence of Artificial Intelligence, posed one of the key questions of the meeting: "How do we define critical thinking when a machine simulates reasoning faster than a human being?"
His answer was clear: education must reinforce human skills (ethics, reasoning, judgment) as the core of AI work. "It's not a question of whether AI is ready, but whether we are ready ", he said. He also stressed the importance of acting from values, he stressed the importance of acting from clear values, especially in a context where legal, institutional and ethical frameworks are still under construction.
For his part, the CTO of the Universidad Panamericana, Juan Carlos García Sánchezshared three strategic actions that are already underway at the institutional level:
- The consolidation of an institutional initiative that articulates all Artificial Intelligence efforts at the five Universidad Panamericana campuses.
- The delivery of more than 1,900 licenses of generative tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini such as ChatGPT and Gemini to support academic, administrative and research work.
- The formation of Artificial Intelligence committees that guide technology decisions based on academic listening and pedagogical impact.
From the technological field, Lorena Bravo, Head in Innovation, Digital Transformation & Security Practices in Latam, from Google, proposed to change the question of "what can AI do?" to "what do we want to achieve with it?". He presented examples on the use of digital agents and the physical-digital model in communities, highlighting that the key is to define pedagogical strategiesnot in adopting technology for its own sake.
A call to rethink education from a human perspective
The Mtra. Mónica LópezMónica López, head of Talent Mexico, reminded that the teaching role should focus on accompaniment and the training process, beyond the evaluation of AI-generated products. "Artificial intelligence does not replace human guidance; we are the ones who place the scaffolding for learning,"he said.
For his part, Dr. Dr. Philippe Prince Philippe Prince invited to take care with the language with which we refer to AI. "Humanizing it linguistically is already a form of defeat. Education is not to implement a technology, but to provoke a resonance in the other.". His final reflection was forceful: the academic integrity is not imposed by external policies, but is lived as a culture that considers it humiliating to delegate thought.
Institutional diagnosis and continuity of the ethical framework
The event also included a presentation of an ongoing diagnostic research study on teacher self-determination in the face of IApromoted by the three campuses of the Universidad Panamericana. The survey, which addresses perceptions, risks and levels of technological appropriation, seeks to identify training needs to strengthen the ethical support of this transition.
With these initiatives, Universidad Panamericana reaffirms its leadership in building a university ecosystem where artificial intelligence is always at the service of the individual, guided by values, critical reflection and an institutional ethical compass.
Learn more about the principles of Universidad Panamericana at: https://www.up.edu.mx/sobre-la-universidad-fundamentos-y-valores/
