AI, ANORC’s alarm: “The real danger is digicracy: the power of a few who hold everyone’s data”
Andrea Lisi: "Artificial intelligence creates nothing if we don't give it the matter, that is, the information, to create"
ROME –Artificial intelligence. Two words to describe a world, the one we live in today and the one that will see future generations as protagonists. Two words that mark an era, perhaps its peak, the extreme tip of a digital revolution that has changed our lives forever. Different habits, different speeds, different connections.
Between people, and between people and things. The parents of today’s thirty-year-olds clearly remember everyday life without the internet, and perhaps this alone would be enough to explain how radically, irremediably the world has changed.
Today questions get answers in real time from ChatGpt. Artificial intelligence, processing of data which, mind you, does not come out of thin air. Because AI does not create if we do not give it the material to create.
It is therefore a good idea to fasten your seat belt, make yourself comfortable and hold the steering wheel firmly. Because it is and must always be the man who drives, not the machine. This is firmly reiterated by Andrea Lisi, President of ANORC Professioni, the Association National which represents digitalisation and privacy professionals and which together with ANORC Mercato, a point of reference for the corporate world, is committed to the field of digitalisation and the protection of information assets by promoting institutional dialogue, professional training and information activities in the sector . And he explains with extreme clarity that AI can be the weapon, but not the finger pressed on the trigger. The potential evil is always man’s, which is summarized in the“danger of digicracy: today most of our data is in the hands of a few players. The problem is all here: digital evolution has escaped the European scenario, at least at an infrastructural and heritage level, certainly also economic but above all data. Everything that concerns us, at an international level, is in the hands of a very few, who consequently hold immense power. Power that has obviously also become economic”.
He doesn’t say it but the echo of the names reverberates in the air: Apple, Meta, Google, of the great powers of the internet in which we are entangled every day, like tuna fish attached to traps . For work, for private life, for passion, for culture. “There was an attempt to enrich ourselves to our detriment and without real awareness of what was happening,” explains Lisi. This is why the European Union reacted firmly, “creating a system, the AI Act, which holds fundamental rights and freedoms firmly in place”. Taking them out of the hands of the digitocrats. “Be careful – Lisi remarks -, the European Union is not against the digital market, which however must be based on trust in order to progress”. Trust that is born, precisely, “from the protection of its principles”.
THE AI ACT
The Ai Act, which will come into full force in the next few months, at most in the next 3 years, was not born yesterday. It takes on the appearance of a single text for the digital age. A summary of many regulations already approved: “There have been a set of European regulations since the beginning of the 2000s that ride on digital issues. It is clear that in the last period, following the datafication of our lives, the European legislator has been able to regulate more: in addition to the Ai Act there isthe Digital Governance Act (September 2023), the Data Act (November 2023) , the Dsa (Digital Services Act, October 2022), the DMA (Digital Markets Act, July 2022). The European framework is made up of many regulations, perhaps too many, which deal with protecting the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens, which can be put to the test by an uncontrolled use of digital innovation”.
THE DANGER OF DISCRIMINATION
When talking about it in depth it seems like we’re in a scene from the Matrix, with Morpheus asking us to choosebetween the red pill and the blue pill. The truth, fortunately, is less apocalyptic nature of the film: “To harm man, in the end the blame remains with man”, Lisi remarks. So how can we control artificial intelligence which, according to the survey conducted by the Milan Polytechnic and relaunched by Il Sole 24 Ore, warns against the risk that artificial intelligence adopts discriminating criteria in the selection of curricula for companiesthat use this technology to recruit staff: “Even in this case, however, the system processes decisions based on choices made in the past. If, for example, male candidates have always been selected for a given position…”, the machine will repeat the same behavior. “We cannot think of delegating ‘uncomfortable’ decisions to artificial intelligence”. Saying it’s his fault…, among other things.
POPE FRANCIS AT THE G7
There must be a sense of responsibility, which translates into ethics of behavior. The meaning of Pope Francis’ message to the G7 in Borgo Egnazia, precisely on the topic of AI: “It should be remembered that the Vatican was the first to talk about this, not thinking about the artificial consciousness that can dominate the world but understanding how many risks there are they can be in a less than anthropocentric use of the technological tool”: Risks that obviously do not only concern the European context, the dynamic is international and “goes beyond the geographical border, and requires cooperation between multiple states”.
THE PERMANENT OBSERVATORY ON DIGITAL DIPLOMACY AND AI
For this reason, ANORC, the Pontifical University Antonianum, Oikos Mediterraneo and the Sophia University Institute have decided to create the permanent observatory on digital diplomacy and AI, which has the aim of analyzing the current situations in various countries, including outside Europe, and propose development strategies to protect human dignity, fundamental citizenship rights on the web and in artificial intelligence systems. “Not an easy objective, because perhaps we find ourselves faced with military systems where the level of protection of freedoms is very low”. And here the role of the Holy See, of the Catholic Church, comes into play: “A universal language that can work in these cases”.
THE TWO-YEAR DIPLOMA IN ETHICS AND AI
It is no coincidence that the Pontifical Antonianum University has decided to create the Biennial Diploma of High Specialization in Ethics and Artificial Intelligence, of which Andrea Lisi will be course consultant and teacher of the ethical address. managerial, sponsored by ANORC. Giuseppe Gimigliano is the coordinator of the course: “We are all called to make a synthesis between the different ethical reflections and make artificial intelligence a tool at the service of everyone, of the community – says Gimigliano -. No one excluded: symphony of diversity. This is the objective of the diploma”.
THE APPOINTMENT
On Saturday 6 July, ANORC will be in Lecce for the event dedicated to “Artificial intelligence, sustainability and digital diplomacy”. From 10 am to 12 pm in Sala Primo Tondo in Palazzo Michele De Pietro, Via Umberto I n. 31. Whoever can, go and listen to the future.