The black hole information paradox and the fate of the infalling observer

<!--HTML-->General Relativity predicts that the horizon of a large black hole is smooth. On the other hand, Quantum Mechanics, and the requirement that no information is lost during black hole evaporation, suggests that the horizon may be dramatically modified at the quantum level, even when the local curvature is small. I will discuss recent developments related to this fundamental conflict between General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. I will present a proposal, motivated by the AdS/CFT correspondence, which seems to resolve the paradox and which opens up a novel framework for a quantitatively precise description of the black hole interior.