In episode twenty of Separating Money and the State, Iván Gómez spoke with Max Goyheneche, vice president of the Argentine Society of Artificial Intelligence (SAIA) and Rootstock ambassador, about the impacts of AI on individual sovereignty and freedom. Goyheneche maintained his bitcoiner vision: although AI is advancing rapidly towards powerful centralized models (controlled by corporations or governments as in China), a countercurrent of adoption of local and open source models is emerging to preserve privacy and avoid the concentration of sensitive data. He highlighted risks such as automated “Big Brother”—mass surveillance without human intervention—and disempowerment, where users cede agency, values or critical decisions to AI. He stressed the importance of free software, personal hardware and tools like Nostr or decentralized identities (SSI) to minimize risks, promoting a future of sovereign cities and individual responsibility instead of totalitarian control. The most relevant: AI is advancing towards powerful centralized models, but the adoption of local open source models is growing to preserve sovereignty and privacy. In 2026, the Mac Mini was sold out due to demand for hardware to run local AI without corporate subscriptions. Privacy loves company: more mass adoption of sovereign practices reduces the risk of standing out as the only “suspect.” Decentralized identities (SSI) allow verifying attributes (age, identity) without revealing complete data. Nostr facilitates decentralized and encrypted communication, complementing digital sovereignty tools. Delegating ethical agency or critical decisions to AI can erode personal values and individual responsibility. Critical thinking («don’t trust, verify») is the key defense against bias, deepfakes and monopolization of the truth. AI systems in health, such as DoctorSV in El Salvador with Google, concentrate sensitive data and generate risks of centralization. Deepfakes threaten democracies by eroding certainty in judicial evidence and factual evidence. Preserving creativity, intellectual effort and humanity is essential to not atrophy the mind in the era of generative AI.
