In an era of great technological challenges, artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a science fiction scenario, but a reality of the present. During the COVID-19 emergency, artificial intelligence is making a very important contribution to medical and scientific research. However, we cannot overlook the complexity of the issues at stake. Between our current reality and the imagined future, human beings today find themselves dealing with accelerated scientific progress and the feeling that something could get out of hand. The expression "artificial intelligence" indicates a set of technological progress, completely new challenges, a necessary rethinking of other areas of human life initiated by humans—but which do not always remain under our control.
Are we ready for AI? And what do we mean in this case by "intelligence" and "artificial"? New technologies require a rethinking of so many aspects of life, such as: ethics for the common good; the right to regulate the use of AI in our personal lives and in society; and religion as a practice, experience, and system of beliefs.
AI poses challenges that are daunting, but it also represents great opportunities. Its evolution will depend on how human beings face this complex horizon, the management of which is the responsibility of both scientific and humanistic culture. Gian Piero Siroli, Stefania Travagnin, and Fabio Macioce brought out the root of the issues at hand.
This event was part of the series Questioni di Civiltà, co-sponsored by La Civiltà Cattolica and Georgetown University.
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Gian Piero Siroli is a physicist who works in the field of subnuclear physics. He is the computer security officer of the large international collaboration Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) at Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) in Geneva and researcher in the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Bologna. He is the author of a large number of articles in this field in various international scientific journals, but he is also active in the field of scientific dissemination. His previous titles include faculty research assistant at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Maryland, College Park; fellow at the National Research Council (CNR); scientific Associate at CERN, Geneva; and member of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) Calculation and Networks Commission. He has also represented INFN in international working groups and commissions for the coordination of the calculation activities of high energy physics. He participated in meetings on developments in the field of information technology and telecommunications in the context of international security, organized by the UN in Geneva in 1999 and 2008. He was a member of the Italian working group on the protection of critical information infrastructures. As a member of the Union of Scientists for Disarmament (USPID), Siroli also contributes to the activities of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs movement, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995, for which he coordinates activities in the cyber-security sector.
Stefania Travagnin is a historian of religions in modern China and Taiwan, and she works at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. She holds a B.A. and M.A. in Oriental languages and literature from the Ca' Foscari University of Venice and a Ph.D. in religious studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. Travagnin has done many years of field research among Buddhist communities in Taiwan and mainland China, and she has been a visiting scholar at several Asian institutions, such as Academia Sinica and Sichuan University. Her research analyzes Buddhism and Buddhists in mainland China and Taiwan from the late nineteenth century to the present day, with a particular focus on texts, women's communities, media and technology, and sangha education. Her publications include the edited Religion and Media in China: Insights and Case Studies from the Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong (2016), and the three-volume Concepts and Methods for the Study of Chinese Religions (2019 and 2020). She directs the project Mapping Religious Diversity in Modern Sichuan with Elena Valussi, funded by the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (2017-2021).
Fabio Macioce is full professor of philosophy of law and bioethics at the LUMSA University, Rome. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, in the Centre for Law, Medicine and Life Sciences; visiting professor at the University of Valencia in the Law Department; and visiting scholar at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford. His research interests revolve around issues of migration and social integration; democracy, minority rights, and legal pluralism; collective rights; bioethics and informed consent; the relationship between law and religion; and artificial intelligence and human rights. In recent years, he has taken part in numerous international research projects, including: BRIC-Inail, "Analisi dei rischi e strumenti di mitigazione per la tutela della salute e sicurezza dei lavoratori nei contesti lavorativi soggetti a trasformazione digitale,” Unit Coordinator ( UniRoma1 – Lumsa – UniTo, 2020-2022); H2020-SwafS-2016-17, “i-Consent. Migliorare le linee guida per il consenso informato, comprese le popolazioni vulnerabili, in un'ottica di genere" (2017-2020); and Council of Europe, European Program “Educazione ai diritti umani per i professionisti legali: HELP e HELP Metodologia di formazione" (2017-2019). He has published numerous articles and monographs, including Il nuovo noi. Migrazione e integrazione come problemi di giustizia (2014).