At ASI we talk about AI: “It steals jobs from those who don’t know how to use it”
This was said by Gianluigi Greco, president of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence, who spoke this morning in Rome at the first of the two days of the symposium 'Bridging Knowledge: Artificial Intelligence'
ROME – “Whoever will steal a job will not be the machine that uses Artificial Intelligence, but whoever knows how to use that machine. This is confirmed by the World Economic Forum, according to which the diffusion of AI will increase jobs globally in the coming years, which is why I believe we need to work on structured university training and research programs, but also at a regulatory and business level”. Gianluigi Greco, president of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (Aiia), is convinced of this, who spoke this morning in Rome at the first of the two days of thesymposium ‘Bridging Knowledge: Artificial Intelligence’, organized by the Italian Space Agency (ASI).
Greco starts by recalling that AI appeared in 2020, but only in 2022 “it sparked a real debate in public opinion and the media, when Dell-E launched ChatGpt, a program capable of creating texts and therefore thought”. In the regulatory field, the European Union has moved with the Ai Act, which “Italy is implementing. By December, for example, the guidelines to improve public administration platforms, such as that of INPS or Inail, will be released. /strong>”. The point, according to the expert, “is not AI itself, but the way in which we use it, in terms of adequate infrastructure but also if and how we regulate it, to best protect the citizen. For example, a drone with a video camera can follow a person, the point is whether it is allowed”, and “Italy is working on this”.
In addition to the ethical and regulatory aspects, Greco then highlights that Italy “is among the top seven countries for scientific research, and AI is a strong reality in universities, but little is invested in research and training“. This is demonstrated by the fact that “according to the Index of digitalisation of the economy and society (Desi) we are in fifth to last place in the EU”, or it is revealed by the Linkedin data, where, continues Greco, “we are even penultimate in the EU for number of professionals who specify that they know how to use AI techniques There is therefore a need for widespread university training that promotes interdisciplinary courses and approaches even in non-Stem fields“.
Finally, “there is little AI in our industrial fabric”. The president of the Hague reports that our country “has 1/3 of digital startups compared to France and Germany and only 15% of companies implement AI systems”. Among the obstacles identified, there would be “difficulty in finding people with specific skills, poor investments but – and this is the point to reflect on most – the impossibility of understanding what AI is for, therefore its value and advantages” .
The expert cites some examples: “How many companies know that it is possible to measure and evaluate elevator vibrations to predict when a fault will occur in the electrical and mechanical parts, to avoid accidents or damage that would then be costly to repair? “, or that it is possible “to be able to read a burnt papyrus from Herculaneum dating back almost 2 thousand years?”. “In short – concludes Greco – we need to imagine this potential: this is where the revolution towards which companies, but also the world of research and public administration, can move begins“.
IA. COSMO (ASI): “TAKING ACCOUNT OF OPPORTUNITIES, BUT ALSO ETHICS”
“Today we begin a dialogue with the communities that deal with Artificial Intelligence (AI), including non-space communities: for example, we want biologists to acquire the skills of the astrophysics community and vice versa, that is, that astrophysicists understand which skills of biologists can be useful to their Earth observation work“. At the Dire agency Mario Cosmo, director of Science and research of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) thus presents the two-day symposium, which aims to promote round tables and discussions with experts on relevant Artificial Intelligence methodologies in various disciplines, such as astrophysics, biology, medicine, Earth observation and fluid dynamics.
The final objective, Cosmo highlights, is, on the one hand, “to foster the interdisciplinarity that characterizes modern and ambitious scientific research” and, on the other, “to arrive at announce funding opportunities and projects, where technology transfer between communities will become the main reason for awarding contracts, which allow us to take advantage of new techniques in our space activities“.
During the symposium, Cosmo underlines how in the public debate, AI is presented “as the solution to all our problems or, on the contrary, as a great source of problems. I believe it is important to take into account both ethical as much as the opportunities that will be created”.
