Artificial intelligence? Ferpilab is among the techno-optimists

Intense debate at the Dire headquarters, many interventions and food for thought. With a surprise announcement

ROME – Techno-optimists and techno-pessimists compare on artificial intelligence. The headquarters of the Dire agency was the ‘stage’ of the first meeting in the presence of Ferpilab (the think tank of the Italian Public Relations Federation ) dedicated to artificial intelligence, through the debate ‘Challenges – Humans and their machines’ (moderated by the scientific director of Ferpilab, Vincenzo Manfredi) attended by Don Andrea Ciucci, strong> coordinator of the Pontifical Academy for Life and general secretary of the RenAIssance Vatican Foundation for the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, the general secretary Ferpi, Daniela Bianchi, Elena Battaglini, scientific director of the Pnrr GreenCommunities CSR project -Alta Sabina, Massimo Morelli, founder of Pensativa, and Massimo Chiriatti, professor at Luiss Guido Carli. “If we imagine that there could be machines capable of taking over because they are self-determining, we would be afraid. But I am a techno-optimist – said Bianchi – because I want to be amazed by the possibility that the good guys can win over the bad guys and that in this challenge we we can remain at the helm of the projection of choices”.

FERPI’S JOINING THE ‘ROME CALL FOR AI ETICHS ‘

Bianchi also surprisingly announced Ferpi’s adhesion to the ‘Rome call for Ai Etichs’, a document conceived and promoted by the Pontifical Academy for Life, which aims to involve large companies, institutions, associations and universities in sharing, with a sense of responsibility, the risks and opportunities offered by technological progress. “We believe that the ethics behind these relational systems is a necessary beacon – he underlined – We do not have a crystallized position on AI but we want to stay within this debate. The relational theme brings with it that of collaboration but the ‘challenge’ does not it is only between machines and humans, it is also imagining a relational system”.

THE WORDS OF THE PRESIDENT OF FERPI

The president of Ferpi, Filippo Nani, remarked how “Artificial Intelligence is the topic of the moment. Bill Gates said that thanks to AI we will only work 3 days a week and the others we will dedicate them to thinking. We communicators will have to use this time to create relationships, which AI is not capable of doing”. we talk about problems, risks and regulations. Which are issues that exist but in my opinion they are point number two, because number one is we are capable of building things that can do things that we don’t know how to do”. At the same time, however, “the technological innovation that we are experimenting requires us to reflect seriously on the future, against the temptation to waste our energies in a sterile custody of the past – continued Don Ciucci – And the future is a question of responsibility that belongs to us, because algoethics, for example, is an ethics of men who build machines and then use them, we can afford to leave the ethical question to the machines”,

AI IS NOT A THREAT BUT AN ALLIANCE

For Elena Battaglini “AI is not a threat but an alliance: humans and machines must learn to coexist by overcoming linear, dichotomous and binary mindsets An alliance where humans, machines, nature and culture can learn from each other. We have the wrong point of view to look at the topic of humans and their machines dichotomous and binary point of view that still pervades our culture, this becomes ‘Humans or their machines’ or worse ‘Humans versus their machines’. However, from a systemic and relational point of view, which I support, there is no it focuses only on humans or their machines, on human or artificial intelligence, but it looks at humans and their machines with respect to what they both produce. This situation is not 2 but 3″.

Battaglini is the scientific director of the Pnrr “Green Communities” project in the Alta Sabina area in Lazio which brings together the municipalities of Rocca Sinibalda (leader), Belmonte, Colle di Tora, Longone , Marcetelli, Torricella, Monteleone, Poggio Moiano, Poggio San Lorenzo and Varco Sabino for the implementation of 15 territorial regeneration interventions through the design of complex multi-scalar systems.
“The aim of the project – said Battaglini – is to facilitate and support innovation and integral sustainability with solutions designed not ‘for’, but ‘together’ with communities, businesses, organizations and local authorities. Fifteen interventions, 4 of which are system-wide which also support others, a community pact. a digital twin (i.e. a territorial digital twin), a block chain platform and a wallet where community exchanges will be ‘tokenised’, i.e. payments for ecosystem services which will transform voluntary services into community bonds and tools for the sustainability of the entire territory”.