Paolo Benanti, Professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and expert in bioethics, ethics of technology, and human adaptation; Nello Cristianini, Professor of Artificial Intelligence, University of Bath. Moderated by Andrea Simoncini, Vice President of the Fondazione Meeting per l’amicizia fra i popoli ETS, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Florence.

Algorithms are among us. The impact of next-generation technologies is now vast and pervasive: when we move, when we read, when we write, when we buy, when we study, when we… think, artificial intelligence systems are at work to suggest what choices to make. Without realizing it, we are experiencing the most overwhelming revolution since the time of Aristotle: we no longer ask technology to do what we have decided to do on our behalf, but rather ask it to decide for us. It is evident that this revolution has a profound impact on our humanity, but above all, it is so overwhelming because it saves us time, effort, and thought. However, the most serious mistake we could make is to imagine that these machines to which we ask to decide for us think like us. It is therefore an epochal challenge, considering that we cannot deny the extent to which these technologies are a factor of development and progress for everyone; on the other hand, it is vital that such progress and growth be critically and consciously guided by human beings. Therefore, an in-depth analysis of this crucial theme is essential at the Meeting. Returning to the Meeting to delve into this topic are two extraordinary friends: Nello Cristianini and Paolo Benanti. Nello Cristianini is one of the most important AI scientists in Europe and the world. In his recent and enlightening book “La scorciatoia”, he clarifies, as a physicist-computer scientist extremely attentive to the human impact of these systems, how they work and how we should use them correctly. Paolo Benanti, a Franciscan, theologian, and member, among other things, of the Artificial Intelligence Task Force of the Agency for Digital Italy, is probably one of the best-known, competent, and respected experts in the world on the relationship between Ethics and Artificial Intelligence. His books and lectures demonstrate a formidable ability to engage with our technological contemporaneity, far from “neo-Luddite” choices but deeply rooted in the centrality of the human person.