Gianluca Misuraca from Inspiring Futures on AI in the public sector
Ep. 56

Gianluca Misuraca from Inspiring Futures on AI in the public sector

Episode description

Gianluca Misuraca of Inspiring Futures Europe, coordinator of the European Union AI Skills Academy, discusses how foresight can help societies shape technological change. He explains why democratic control of AI depends on digital sovereignty, public-sector skills, interoperability, better procurement, and meaningful citizen participation.

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0:00

Alessandro Oppo: Welcome to another episode of the Democracy Innovator podcast, and our guest of today is Gianluca Mizoraki.

0:05

Alessandro Oppo: So thank you for your time, Gianluca.

0:08

Gianluca Misuraca: Thank you for the invitation, Alessandro. Hello, everyone.

0:12

Alessandro Oppo: And,

0:13

Alessandro Oppo: mean, you're working on many projects, and before we were

0:17

Alessandro Oppo: talking about inspiring

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Alessandro Oppo: future,

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Alessandro Oppo: would you like to tell us something?

0:24

Gianluca Misuraca: Yes. Maybe well, first of all, thanks again for the invitation, and it's a pleasure. And, I mean, maybe I give you

0:30

a bit of my background

0:32

Gianluca Misuraca: and how I got in fact to to,

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Gianluca Misuraca: let's say, to be to get obsessed about the future or futures in a plural term

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Gianluca Misuraca: So first of all, I've been working mainly in several institutions, United Nations, European Commissions,

0:48

Gianluca Misuraca: and working

0:50

Gianluca Misuraca: always at the intersection about

0:53

Gianluca Misuraca: policy, governance,

0:54

Gianluca Misuraca: technology.

0:56

Gianluca Misuraca: So democracy is clearly very much related to this.

1:00

Gianluca Misuraca: And in particular,

1:02

Gianluca Misuraca: always looking

1:03

Gianluca Misuraca: with a future perspective.

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Gianluca Misuraca: I worked at the Institute for Perspective Technological Studies of the European Commission joint to the centre

1:11

Gianluca Misuraca: in Seville for

1:13

Gianluca Misuraca: more than twelve years.

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Gianluca Misuraca: We have been always looking at

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Gianluca Misuraca: how technology can impact society

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Gianluca Misuraca: and what could be the future of

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Gianluca Misuraca: Digital Europe.

1:26

Gianluca Misuraca: So we were talking about artificial intelligence

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Gianluca Misuraca: many years ago before now became

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Gianluca Misuraca: the

1:33

Gianluca Misuraca: new normal,

1:34

Gianluca Misuraca: and everybody's

1:35

Gianluca Misuraca: talking about it.

1:37

Gianluca Misuraca: And we can probably discuss about this later, and what are the implications indeed for democracy.

1:43

Gianluca Misuraca: I mean before that also they called Politechnique Federardo do Nausanne is where I started looking at

1:49

Gianluca Misuraca: scenarios for the future, how to roadmap

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Gianluca Misuraca: and to try to understand, anticipate

1:57

Gianluca Misuraca: especially the

1:58

Gianluca Misuraca: possible negative consequences of certain

2:02

Gianluca Misuraca: choices and certain decisions. So how to equip policymakers

2:06

Gianluca Misuraca: also with

2:07

Gianluca Misuraca: the capacity

2:08

Gianluca Misuraca: not to,

2:10

Gianluca Misuraca: let's say,

2:13

Gianluca Misuraca: see the future. Of course, this is impossible, but rather to

2:17

Gianluca Misuraca: better understand what

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Gianluca Misuraca: should be avoided, for example, or what should be done, what strategies and policy

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Gianluca Misuraca: would be better to put in place. That's why when I decided in the middle of COVID in 2020 to leave the

2:31

Gianluca Misuraca: European Commission, I actually

2:33

Gianluca Misuraca: set up with colleagues

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Gianluca Misuraca: these new ventures, Inspiring Futures.

2:39

Gianluca Misuraca: Actually, we are based in Switzerland,

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Gianluca Misuraca: but we also have Inspiring Futures Europe, actually, that is based in

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Gianluca Misuraca: Madrid.

2:47

Gianluca Misuraca: But we work globally. I'm just back from The US. I'm going to Argentina next week. So we are working on different

2:54

projects. In particular, and maybe this is something we can elaborate a bit more,

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Gianluca Misuraca: is exactly

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Gianluca Misuraca: what kind of skills

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Gianluca Misuraca: in relation to artificial intelligence

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Gianluca Misuraca: we should

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Gianluca Misuraca: reinforce and strengthen

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Gianluca Misuraca: at different levels in our society.

3:13

Alessandro Oppo: You're

3:14

Alessandro Oppo: saying future or also possible futures, so in the plural way.

3:19

Alessandro Oppo: And I was thinking, how do you imagine like the a possible future or also the possible

3:25

Alessandro Oppo: plural futures?

3:27

Gianluca Misuraca: Well, I mean, we we I mean, we always say, I mean, there's a the the rule number one for a future

3:34

is this, you know, the future does we don't know which

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Gianluca Misuraca: will be the future, no? Or

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Gianluca Misuraca: some would say even the future doesn't really exist, it's how we shape it, how we construct the future.

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Gianluca Misuraca: And there are possible alternative futures, and that's why it's always important to look at what

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Gianluca Misuraca: could be the

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Gianluca Misuraca: different directions, the certain choices of today

3:58

Gianluca Misuraca: with

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Gianluca Misuraca: shape different futures. So I mean, I

4:05

Gianluca Misuraca: started

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Gianluca Misuraca: many years ago already to

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Gianluca Misuraca: make scenarios, especially about

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Gianluca Misuraca: the possible impact of technology on society, I mean, were already

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Gianluca Misuraca: as many others, of course we were

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Gianluca Misuraca: not the only one seeing

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Gianluca Misuraca: clearly

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Gianluca Misuraca: the positive

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Gianluca Misuraca: and the opportunities that technologies,

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Gianluca Misuraca: different ways of technologies

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Gianluca Misuraca: have and can have in our society. I mean, this

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Gianluca Misuraca: cannot be denied.

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Gianluca Misuraca: Technology, especially digital technologies in the last thirty, forty years has completely changed our society. And I would say in

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general terms for the better because we

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Gianluca Misuraca: can do things that

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Gianluca Misuraca: in the past were not possible because of the technology

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Gianluca Misuraca: and the kind of pervasiveness

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Gianluca Misuraca: that we have, especially in certain parts of the world, not in all, of course. But then we have also the risks,

5:00

the

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Gianluca Misuraca: possible

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Gianluca Misuraca: negative

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Gianluca Misuraca: consequences of, let's say, the bad use, the misuse of technologies,

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Gianluca Misuraca: or the fact that society

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Gianluca Misuraca: has become

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Gianluca Misuraca: really

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Gianluca Misuraca: somehow now used so much to certain technologies and

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Gianluca Misuraca: our

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Gianluca Misuraca: behaviours are shaped by those technologies because of course we could not, or we didn't know how to also regulate those technologies

5:27

Gianluca Misuraca: or we didn't want to regulate, we couldn't. So if we look at social media, I mean yesterday,

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Gianluca Misuraca: this is very timely, yesterday the commission launched President von der Leyen

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Gianluca Misuraca: a

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Gianluca Misuraca: proposal to

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Gianluca Misuraca: make

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Gianluca Misuraca: compulsory for

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Gianluca Misuraca: minors to

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Gianluca Misuraca: show their age for

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Gianluca Misuraca: access in social media so that basically they cannot

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Gianluca Misuraca: do so. And this is in fact a major problem for the current generation.

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Gianluca Misuraca: But definitely this is something that was already anticipated,

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Gianluca Misuraca: I would say already twenty years ago,

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Gianluca Misuraca: our

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Gianluca Misuraca: social media could be a weapon also for democracy, and we see that every day.

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Gianluca Misuraca: I mean, I was in Washington last week, and if we see what's happening nowadays and

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Gianluca Misuraca: the attempt to,

6:24

Gianluca Misuraca: I mean, not the attempt, actually, the disinformation

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Gianluca Misuraca: that is growing because of these technologies,

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Gianluca Misuraca: it's not saying, I mean, we cannot just say, Oh, we didn't know, we have not seen this coming. Actually it was

6:37

there, and there are a lot of studies that were anticipating this, but probably actually

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Gianluca Misuraca: the policymakers

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Gianluca Misuraca: were not able or didn't want to really listen to that.

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Gianluca Misuraca: Of course evidence is not so black

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Gianluca Misuraca: and white. Of course there are many nuances,

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Gianluca Misuraca: clearly there are

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Gianluca Misuraca: some risks and some very dangerous, big, big dangers that some technologies are bringing.

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Gianluca Misuraca: AI, artificial intelligence,

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Gianluca Misuraca: is clearly probably

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Gianluca Misuraca: the most prominent

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Gianluca Misuraca: and

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Gianluca Misuraca: also,

7:12

Gianluca Misuraca: I mean, powerful

7:14

Gianluca Misuraca: set of technologies that we have today that could

7:18

Gianluca Misuraca: make, of course,

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Gianluca Misuraca: a very

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Gianluca Misuraca: good positive contribution to society, but also could create a lot of challenges. So that's why we have to look at the

7:28

future,

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Gianluca Misuraca: I wouldn't say in a pessimistic way, but with

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Gianluca Misuraca: careful

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Gianluca Misuraca: attention to the fact that if we lose the control and it seems we are somehow or sometime losing it, we could,

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Gianluca Misuraca: have bad,

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Gianluca Misuraca: let's say, consequences.

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Alessandro Oppo: And

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Alessandro Oppo: so,

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Alessandro Oppo: I mean, we can shape the future.

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Alessandro Oppo: And I wonder, like, for you, like to shape a future that also you like to see

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Alessandro Oppo: And also regarding like not losing the control also in relation to technology, what do you think should be important to do?

8:09

Gianluca Misuraca: Look, when when actually one of my last

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Gianluca Misuraca: work when I was still in the European Commission was exactly in, in the period 2018,

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Gianluca Misuraca: 2020.

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Gianluca Misuraca: So we published this scenario for building and shaping a digital Euro 2040.

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Gianluca Misuraca: And these were very timely because of course we were

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Gianluca Misuraca: our work was to provide some evidence, some input, some contribution to the policy

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Gianluca Misuraca: decision taken in Brussels and

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Gianluca Misuraca: in the European

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Gianluca Misuraca: capitals because this is a joint work, of course, of the Commission and the European Council and

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Gianluca Misuraca: the Parliament. Clearly the Fund, for the first time in 2020,

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Gianluca Misuraca: was launched a dedicated programme

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Gianluca Misuraca: on digital from the Digital Euro programme, and a lot of emphasis

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Gianluca Misuraca: was given to digital

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Gianluca Misuraca: technologies with the digital

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Gianluca Misuraca: digital decade policy programme, so the

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Gianluca Misuraca: claim or the vision and the ambition of the European Union to become

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Gianluca Misuraca: a leader or at least to start

9:14

Gianluca Misuraca: racing with the other regions in the world in different areas, including on artificial intelligence,

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Gianluca Misuraca: was,

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Gianluca Misuraca: let's say, something also very

9:26

Gianluca Misuraca: timely and and

9:28

Gianluca Misuraca: and interesting and and concrete because we were not just, you know, studying the future, let's say, but actually providing very concrete

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Gianluca Misuraca: input to what could be done

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Gianluca Misuraca: already at that time and should be done in order that by 2040,

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Gianluca Misuraca: our horizon was

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Gianluca Misuraca: 2040,

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Gianluca Misuraca: so in twenty years we could actually really make sure that we don't go into those negative scenarios that we have also

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depicted just to show what could be the

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Gianluca Misuraca: danger of not intervening,

10:00

Gianluca Misuraca: for example.

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Gianluca Misuraca: And on the other side trying to

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Gianluca Misuraca: develop

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Gianluca Misuraca: an ideal scenario where we can hope, of course, that,

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Gianluca Misuraca: for instance, the maker and the shapers of technology come together in an open and trusted innovation ecosystem, right? Something where

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we have open governance, democratic

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Gianluca Misuraca: systems are not threatened by technology, and there is more social cohesion. So of course to do that we have to address

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Gianluca Misuraca: those main,

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Gianluca Misuraca: what we call it in

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Gianluca Misuraca: foresight terms, dimensions of impact. So what could actually make this positive

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Gianluca Misuraca: scenario happen or actually

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Gianluca Misuraca: not become

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Gianluca Misuraca: reality

10:43

Gianluca Misuraca: and bring us in

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Gianluca Misuraca: a negative or

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Gianluca Misuraca: a bad scenario,

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Gianluca Misuraca: a dark scenario, let's say. And clearly we look already at the time at

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Gianluca Misuraca: the landscape of digital transformation.

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Gianluca Misuraca: So it's something that it's

11:00

Gianluca Misuraca: not only the regulation,

11:02

Gianluca Misuraca: of course, but clearly building on the regulatory framework that

11:06

Gianluca Misuraca: it's

11:07

Gianluca Misuraca: indeed what, for instance, the European Union has

11:12

Gianluca Misuraca: been building

11:14

Gianluca Misuraca: now for decades, not only the AI Act, everybody knows

11:18

Gianluca Misuraca: about the AI Act more or less, but there is

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Gianluca Misuraca: a digital governance framework that has been built since many years

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Gianluca Misuraca: that has a combination of rules and also incentives,

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Gianluca Misuraca: because of course it also requires

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Gianluca Misuraca: the need to

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Gianluca Misuraca: ensure that we have an ecosystem

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Gianluca Misuraca: that allows then those

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Gianluca Misuraca: rules to be enforced and make sure that we have

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Gianluca Misuraca: a playing level field for all European players

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Gianluca Misuraca: and avoid that some

11:53

Gianluca Misuraca: players that are clearly not European are actually taking advantage

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Gianluca Misuraca: of our

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Gianluca Misuraca: economy, our market.

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Gianluca Misuraca: And the other element that is very much linked to that is the data sovereignty

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Gianluca Misuraca: issue. Basically,

12:08

Gianluca Misuraca: we have been discussing

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Gianluca Misuraca: about, you know, making

12:12

Gianluca Misuraca: ourselves, everybody

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Gianluca Misuraca: owner of their own data. The GDPR is all about that. Basically, it's making sure that we can control

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Gianluca Misuraca: our

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Gianluca Misuraca: data.

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Gianluca Misuraca: And

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Gianluca Misuraca: this is not necessarily the case. Actually, the current scenario, if you want, status quo, normally you have also a scenario that

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is, okay, what if nothing changed? Right? Where are we standing now? Basically it's

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Gianluca Misuraca: a scenario that we call it of apartheid and closed innovation.

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Gianluca Misuraca: Basically, first of all, all the systems that we have now, most, I mean all of them, despite

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Gianluca Misuraca: their claim to be open, in reality they are very much closed. I mean, the Apple, the Googles, I mean, they are

12:58

not necessarily interoperable.

12:59

Gianluca Misuraca: I mean, there has been some advances exactly because of the request by

13:04

Gianluca Misuraca: governments and in particular the European Commission, but in reality

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Gianluca Misuraca: they

13:09

Gianluca Misuraca: tend to, let's say, create their own

13:13

Gianluca Misuraca: garden.

13:14

Gianluca Misuraca: On the other side,

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Gianluca Misuraca: there is also the that we as users

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Gianluca Misuraca: are not

13:21

Gianluca Misuraca: capable, are not equipped with the

13:24

Gianluca Misuraca: tools and the instruments to actually question

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Gianluca Misuraca: this status quo. And what we do, in fact, at the end of the day, we tick the boxes of the GDPR.

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Gianluca Misuraca: We hope that nothing too bad will happen.

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Gianluca Misuraca: So this is exactly where

13:39

Gianluca Misuraca: we talk about digital sovereignty. We have to make sure that

13:43

Gianluca Misuraca: everybody in principle, in an easy way then, can regain

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Gianluca Misuraca: the ownership and the sovereignty of those data. So

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Gianluca Misuraca: digital governance

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Gianluca Misuraca: and

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Gianluca Misuraca: data governance become actually the two key issues that need to be addressed. And if we make it right,

14:02

Gianluca Misuraca: we are trying to do, but of course there have been many things happening since

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Gianluca Misuraca: we

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Gianluca Misuraca: designed this scenario in 2020 until now, then we could have maybe that ideal positive

14:15

Gianluca Misuraca: scenario

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Gianluca Misuraca: for the future generations.

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Alessandro Oppo: And I think this is also related to what you were saying about which

14:27

Alessandro Oppo: kind of skill

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Alessandro Oppo: should we develop in society also in relation to technology? I mean, AI is the

14:36

Alessandro Oppo: main technology. Yes.

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Gianluca Misuraca: Is the buzzword

14:39

Gianluca Misuraca: or the keyword. I mean, I would say, yes, and indeed this brings me to

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Gianluca Misuraca: the projects that I'm actually leading now.

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Gianluca Misuraca: I mean, once I left the Commission, in fact one of my first proposals was to have

14:55

Gianluca Misuraca: a dedicated master on AI for government, AI, artificial intelligence support public services

15:02

Gianluca Misuraca: that we designed

15:04

Gianluca Misuraca: with colleagues

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Gianluca Misuraca: in collaboration between the Universidad Polytech in Madrid and Polytechnico di Milano. I work with both of them. And we had also

15:14

other partners from Germany, Estonia.

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Gianluca Misuraca: And this master that

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Gianluca Misuraca: started in 2021

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Gianluca Misuraca: and now is entering its sixth edition

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Gianluca Misuraca: is

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Gianluca Misuraca: a combination by design

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Gianluca Misuraca: of

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Gianluca Misuraca: data scientists,

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Gianluca Misuraca: AI experts and specialists with design thinkers.

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Gianluca Misuraca: So for instance, Politico Milano, I'm associated with the department of

15:40

Gianluca Misuraca: design. And the idea there is that we actually,

15:43

Gianluca Misuraca: when we want to use,

15:46

Gianluca Misuraca: adopt AI

15:47

Gianluca Misuraca: in public services, we really need to think carefully

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Gianluca Misuraca: the design of the service, the policy,

15:54

Gianluca Misuraca: the processes, and

15:56

Gianluca Misuraca: even ask ourselves basic questions. Do we really need to use the latest technology, AI? Maybe is there something else that

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Gianluca Misuraca: we need to do before maybe investing on certain technology just because it is cool.

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Gianluca Misuraca: Clearly generative AI that was then

16:14

Gianluca Misuraca: exploded

16:16

Gianluca Misuraca: in 2022

16:18

Gianluca Misuraca: a bit unexpectedly,

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Gianluca Misuraca: although it has been there for a while,

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Gianluca Misuraca: it even

16:25

Gianluca Misuraca: changed the

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Gianluca Misuraca: game and even including,

16:30

Gianluca Misuraca: let's say, further

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Gianluca Misuraca: emphasized the importance of this approach. So in design

16:39

Gianluca Misuraca: terms,

16:40

Gianluca Misuraca: we talk about reframing.

16:43

Gianluca Misuraca: We need to reframe the public sector innovation

16:46

Gianluca Misuraca: systems because they need to actually embrace the complexity that

16:51

Gianluca Misuraca: a digital transformation and especially AI enabled services

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Gianluca Misuraca: are bringing to

16:58

Gianluca Misuraca: the government, the public sector, but in general to society at large. So master was very successful.

17:05

Gianluca Misuraca: Mean, we have been awarded the Digital Skills Award, European Digital Skills Award in 2023,

17:11

Gianluca Misuraca: have been

17:12

Gianluca Misuraca: also mentioned as a best practice in several UN, OECD and other

17:17

Gianluca Misuraca: international organizations,

17:19

Gianluca Misuraca: let's say, reports.

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Gianluca Misuraca: But apart from that, it was

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Gianluca Misuraca: because at the end of the day we train,

17:27

Gianluca Misuraca: let's say, in average 40

17:29

Gianluca Misuraca: people per year, 40% per year. That it's good. We have very good

17:33

Gianluca Misuraca: participants.

17:34

Gianluca Misuraca: We don't call them

17:36

Gianluca Misuraca: students because they are all very

17:39

Gianluca Misuraca: experienced

17:42

Gianluca Misuraca: professionals

17:43

Gianluca Misuraca: and they then end up, maybe many of them ended up working, I don't know, in the AI

17:49

Gianluca Misuraca: office or the European Commission or the OECD AI Policy Observatory,

17:53

Gianluca Misuraca: just you mentioned UNESCO,

17:55

Gianluca Misuraca: or of course in

17:56

Gianluca Misuraca: national governments

17:58

Gianluca Misuraca: from really, I mean, course from many European countries, but also from, I don't know, from Bhutan, Philippines up to Chile, Argentina,

18:06

Gianluca Misuraca: Brazil, so we really cover and Africa as well. So we cover most of the

18:11

Gianluca Misuraca: I mean, many countries in the world, think about almost 60 different countries in the last five editions,

18:18

Gianluca Misuraca: and we are now almost about 200

18:22

Gianluca Misuraca: a network of over

18:24

Gianluca Misuraca: 200,

18:25

Gianluca Misuraca: let's say, alumni that has been established.

18:28

Gianluca Misuraca: And so this was also

18:30

Gianluca Misuraca: the inspiration for me for launching a new project. We made a proposal

18:35

Gianluca Misuraca: under the Digital Euro programme, and I mean, I call it AI for GOV X, AI for GOV Accelerate,

18:41

Gianluca Misuraca: and this is a much larger project. We have over 40 partners and

18:46

Gianluca Misuraca: equally 40 associate partners from all over the world, also not only Europe, but we cover all Europe, but we also have

18:54

Australia,

18:54

Gianluca Misuraca: Korea,

18:56

Gianluca Misuraca: many other countries. So what what we are doing here, we are launching right

19:01

Gianluca Misuraca: now a new master in a different format.

19:05

Gianluca Misuraca: I mean, AI for GOV has been crafted in a way that you have to be there

19:10

Gianluca Misuraca: virtually. I mean, it's online, but you have to participate real time. So we have classes twice per week. And then there

19:17

are a couple of in person events in Madrid and in Milan

19:21

Gianluca Misuraca: where people also network because this is very important.

19:25

Gianluca Misuraca: And what we have there is a lot of project based learning, experiential learning. So you'd actually work with tools,

19:31

Gianluca Misuraca: with data,

19:33

Gianluca Misuraca: and you make your own

19:35

Gianluca Misuraca: projects

19:36

Gianluca Misuraca: and with

19:37

Gianluca Misuraca: tutorship by by some experts.

19:41

Gianluca Misuraca: And there is also a final thesis that is very much linked to your specific work. This is a invaluable

19:47

Gianluca Misuraca: experience we have seen that give

19:50

Gianluca Misuraca: is a unique

19:52

Gianluca Misuraca: added value of this program. Now, of course, as

19:55

Gianluca Misuraca: I say, this is limited to a number of participants that can actually dedicate the time and the resources for that. But

20:02

now we have launched I mean, if we want to scale it up, we are making this,

20:08

Gianluca Misuraca: on a larger scale with the

20:11

Gianluca Misuraca: idea to train 3,000 people in the next three years,

20:15

Gianluca Misuraca: both through a new master, a master I call it magics,

20:19

Gianluca Misuraca: master in AI, governance innovation and digital transformation.

20:24

Gianluca Misuraca: And here we have several specializations,

20:27

Gianluca Misuraca: and you can actually

20:28

Gianluca Misuraca: make your master

20:30

Gianluca Misuraca: almost a la carte, in the sense you can choose certain modules, certain courses,

20:36

Gianluca Misuraca: many of them are asynchronous,

20:38

Gianluca Misuraca: so not

20:39

Gianluca Misuraca: real time or not in person, but there are also opportunities

20:43

Gianluca Misuraca: to do

20:44

Gianluca Misuraca: summer school, specific courses,

20:46

Gianluca Misuraca: and in different languages, not all in English. English remained prominent,

20:51

Gianluca Misuraca: of course, but in many cases we have also offers in Italian,

20:56

Gianluca Misuraca: in German, in French, in Spanish and so forth. And this is growing as we have the Masters and then we have

21:03

a catalogue of, at the moment, we are already getting to about 100 courses, different formats,

21:09

Gianluca Misuraca: different universities,

21:12

Gianluca Misuraca: different also not

21:13

Gianluca Misuraca: necessarily academic institutions,

21:15

Gianluca Misuraca: also

21:17

Gianluca Misuraca: more practical oriented,

21:20

Gianluca Misuraca: for instance, boot camps,

21:22

Gianluca Misuraca: and you can choose those.

21:24

Gianluca Misuraca: And the good news is that out of the budget of the project, we have quite a large

21:29

Gianluca Misuraca: amount of resources for scholarships.

21:32

Gianluca Misuraca: So people can actually apply to a program that

21:36

Gianluca Misuraca: are already

21:37

Gianluca Misuraca: very accessible.

21:39

Gianluca Misuraca: And in addition to that, they can get

21:43

Gianluca Misuraca: 50%

21:44

Gianluca Misuraca: basically of reimbursement

21:46

Gianluca Misuraca: through this process of

21:48

Gianluca Misuraca: selection. So something I will invite everybody to join because it's

21:53

Gianluca Misuraca: really

21:55

Gianluca Misuraca: again, the approach is that it's not just listening to someone

21:59

Gianluca Misuraca: or studying, but it's really doing things,

22:02

Gianluca Misuraca: learning by doing. And you can immediately apply

22:06

Gianluca Misuraca: to your own work

22:08

Gianluca Misuraca: because that's what we have seen with the participants.

22:11

Gianluca Misuraca: We had entire teams coming from

22:14

Gianluca Misuraca: certain organizations,

22:16

Gianluca Misuraca: and then they were going back to

22:18

Gianluca Misuraca: work

22:19

Gianluca Misuraca: with

22:20

Gianluca Misuraca: some skills that they applied directly.

22:23

Gianluca Misuraca: And in

22:24

Gianluca Misuraca: addition to that, I mean, this is not yet, let's say, public in the sense that we will start the May 1,

22:32

but I have also been

22:35

Gianluca Misuraca: appointed the coordinator of the European

22:38

Gianluca Misuraca: Union AI Skills Academy. We just won we won this, and this I will be coordinating

22:45

Gianluca Misuraca: this was also a call from the European Union, from the European Commission under the Digital Euro program.

22:51

Gianluca Misuraca: And

22:52

Gianluca Misuraca: we'll be working directly

22:55

Gianluca Misuraca: through

22:56

Gianluca Misuraca: with

22:57

Gianluca Misuraca: the AI office also because they have a lot of interest.

23:00

Gianluca Misuraca: As you know, there is an important element

23:04

Gianluca Misuraca: of AI literacy also in the AI Act, for example, that need to be addressed.

23:09

Gianluca Misuraca: And this I will do directly as a coordinator with my own company, Inspiring Futures Europe. So it's an additional,

23:17

Gianluca Misuraca: let's say,

23:19

Gianluca Misuraca: honor, but also

23:21

Gianluca Misuraca: responsibility.

23:25

Alessandro Oppo: Yeah.

23:26

Alessandro Oppo: A lot of things. I

23:28

Alessandro Oppo: was, thinking about the transition to digital.

23:32

Alessandro Oppo: I mean,

23:34

Alessandro Oppo: the digital transition also regarding the public administration

23:37

Alessandro Oppo: and and also

23:38

Alessandro Oppo: relation to governance.

23:40

Alessandro Oppo: And,

23:42

Alessandro Oppo: I mean, I know that this is already happening,

23:45

Alessandro Oppo: sometimes in a

23:47

Alessandro Oppo: informal way, sometimes in a more structured way.

23:51

Alessandro Oppo: And I wonder, like, if you have a sort of possible timeline

23:56

Alessandro Oppo: that,

23:57

Alessandro Oppo: I know that is not,

24:01

Alessandro Oppo: that cannot be very precise, but.

24:04

Gianluca Misuraca: Well,

24:05

Gianluca Misuraca: I mean, no, let me because this brings me to another I mean,

24:10

Gianluca Misuraca: definitely my last scenario

24:12

Gianluca Misuraca: that last year I presented

24:14

Gianluca Misuraca: we made a foresight exercise

24:17

Gianluca Misuraca: for the

24:20

Gianluca Misuraca: for the commission on Govtech.

24:24

Gianluca Misuraca: And of course they

24:27

Gianluca Misuraca: wanted to have something

24:31

Gianluca Misuraca: this is happening, right?

24:33

Gianluca Misuraca: You see a transition, as you mentioned, is something, you have a state and then you have another state, right? So you

24:41

move from one state and transitioning to another state.

24:45

Gianluca Misuraca: Now, when it comes

24:47

Gianluca Misuraca: to, to digital transformation,

24:49

Gianluca Misuraca: digital government, this is not actually

24:52

Gianluca Misuraca: so, at least it's not, so easy. I mean,

24:56

Gianluca Misuraca: I've been looking at this phenomenon since

25:00

Gianluca Misuraca: even before it was called e government in the nineties, informatization

25:04

Gianluca Misuraca: in the public sector, in public administration.

25:07

Gianluca Misuraca: And of course, again, as I said before, a lot has been done, especially in some countries. I mean, if we look

25:14

at Europe, I mean, we have a lot of digital services.

25:17

Gianluca Misuraca: We cannot

25:18

Gianluca Misuraca: say that nothing happened. But it is true that we, at the time, twenty years ago, we were hoping for this to

25:27

be quite more radical

25:29

Gianluca Misuraca: and quick.

25:30

Gianluca Misuraca: So there's still a lot to be done.

25:35

Gianluca Misuraca: And also because there's been some,

25:38

Gianluca Misuraca: let's say, I don't know, mistake or

25:41

Gianluca Misuraca: something that does not really

25:44

Gianluca Misuraca: been done is the, the, the change that we wanted to, to, I mean, that, that should be done with these technologies

25:52

sometimes is, makes also

25:55

Gianluca Misuraca: a bit of fear. No? There is some fear of change. There is a resistance to change. There is the part dependency

26:03

of the organisations that, I mean, that it's very difficult to change the cultural mindset and the rules,

26:10

Gianluca Misuraca: the skills, in fact, and then, of course,

26:14

Gianluca Misuraca: the incentives

26:15

Gianluca Misuraca: for people to really

26:17

Gianluca Misuraca: make this transformation.

26:19

Gianluca Misuraca: Now in the last

26:21

Gianluca Misuraca: this work we've done on the GovTech, so I choose to look at the horizon 2050

26:29

Gianluca Misuraca: because

26:30

Gianluca Misuraca: I think we have to go a bit farther in the

26:35

Gianluca Misuraca: of course, then we came

26:37

Gianluca Misuraca: back. We do what we call the backcasting.

26:39

Gianluca Misuraca: Right? Backcasting

26:41

Gianluca Misuraca: means we look at the long term scenario,

26:44

Gianluca Misuraca: then we come back to to

26:46

Gianluca Misuraca: what we have to do today to in order that this scenario will actually

26:52

Gianluca Misuraca: be possibly

26:53

Gianluca Misuraca: achieved.

26:55

Gianluca Misuraca: Although of course we all know that the future will be a combination of different scenarios. But in this case,

27:01

Gianluca Misuraca: apart from the various,

27:03

Gianluca Misuraca: the name we gave to the various scenarios

27:07

Gianluca Misuraca: of the

27:09

Gianluca Misuraca: non

27:10

Gianluca Misuraca: positive ones, a chameleon

27:13

Gianluca Misuraca: gov tech or

27:15

Gianluca Misuraca: the fact that we could be

27:19

Gianluca Misuraca: also ending up in mon GovTech.

27:23

Gianluca Misuraca: That's what there was,

27:24

Gianluca Misuraca: collaborative

27:25

Gianluca Misuraca: work we have done. We co designed these scenarios with experts and

27:30

Gianluca Misuraca: practitioners and different stakeholders, and of course I ensured

27:33

Gianluca Misuraca: that

27:35

Gianluca Misuraca: also younger people participated

27:37

Gianluca Misuraca: and contributed because sometimes we have the experts and we are all

27:42

Gianluca Misuraca: getting to a certain age.

27:45

Gianluca Misuraca: And one of these younger

27:47

Gianluca Misuraca: experts,

27:48

Gianluca Misuraca: I mean participants,

27:50

Gianluca Misuraca: told me, But

27:52

Gianluca Misuraca: why is 2050?

27:54

Gianluca Misuraca: So maybe and the roadmap that we had then

27:59

Gianluca Misuraca: co developed,

27:59

Gianluca Misuraca: say maybe there are things that we could already do before and why?

28:05

Gianluca Misuraca: So I mean, there was a bit of an interesting discussion. But then at the end of the day, if we look

28:09

at certain

28:12

Gianluca Misuraca: prerequisite,

28:13

Gianluca Misuraca: I would even say, for this transition, this transformation to happen, we are not yet necessarily there. For example, one of the

28:20

key

28:21

Gianluca Misuraca: dimension of impact in this case,

28:24

Gianluca Misuraca: we choose interoperability.

28:27

Gianluca Misuraca: And it's okay, interoperability

28:29

Gianluca Misuraca: is very easy. Right?

28:31

Gianluca Misuraca: But in reality,

28:32

Gianluca Misuraca: if we look at the case of Europe, we don't have yet such interoperability

28:39

Gianluca Misuraca: so

28:40

Gianluca Misuraca: well done in the public sector,

28:42

Gianluca Misuraca: well, maybe not even in the private sector.

28:45

Gianluca Misuraca: Basically

28:46

Gianluca Misuraca: we had to make a regulation, a proposal of regulation in Europe

28:51

Gianluca Misuraca: that entered into force

28:54

Gianluca Misuraca: last year, and now

28:56

Gianluca Misuraca: it takes some time hopefully to get to full speed. So we have to take this, but we have to make sure

29:02

that

29:03

Gianluca Misuraca: I mean, have been talking about interoperability

29:05

Gianluca Misuraca: for

29:07

Gianluca Misuraca: forty years maybe,

29:08

Gianluca Misuraca: and now it's really time to make this happen. And this is not a technical issue. Technical is pretty simple.

29:15

Gianluca Misuraca: It's more a

29:18

Gianluca Misuraca: political one, a political decision,

29:20

Gianluca Misuraca: is a legal

29:22

Gianluca Misuraca: and also semantic,

29:24

Gianluca Misuraca: let's say,

29:27

Gianluca Misuraca: aspects that need to be addressed. So we basically have to make sure that we speak the same language.

29:32

Gianluca Misuraca: And when I say when there are some exchanges of information,

29:36

Gianluca Misuraca: we recognize immediately, the system recognizes immediately,

29:39

Gianluca Misuraca: and they can be put then at disposal of different organization,

29:44

Gianluca Misuraca: etcetera.

29:45

Gianluca Misuraca: And the other element where we are still,

29:48

Gianluca Misuraca: despite we have been talking about this for many years, lacking behind

29:52

Gianluca Misuraca: is the public procurement.

29:54

Gianluca Misuraca: I mean, innovation in public procurement,

29:57

Gianluca Misuraca: has been there, and there are mechanisms for doing it, but it's not much, used. I mean, we still

30:04

Gianluca Misuraca: buy technology like we are buying, I don't know, bread

30:08

Gianluca Misuraca: in the grocery

30:09

Gianluca Misuraca: or by kilograms,

30:11

Gianluca Misuraca: or we buy technologies

30:13

Gianluca Misuraca: like they are chairs and tables.

30:16

Gianluca Misuraca: Actually the

30:18

Gianluca Misuraca: old digital technology,

30:19

Gianluca Misuraca: but especially artificial intelligence,

30:22

Gianluca Misuraca: are dynamic.

30:25

Gianluca Misuraca: So we really need to make sure that when we procure something, first of all, we understand

30:31

Gianluca Misuraca: what we need,

30:32

Gianluca Misuraca: and that's why it's important, so important to have the skills and the capacity, the competencies to understand

30:38

Gianluca Misuraca: this. And on the other side,

30:41

Gianluca Misuraca: we have to also ensure that there is a

30:45

Gianluca Misuraca: continuing process of maintenance

30:48

Gianluca Misuraca: and accompanying this. So

30:51

Gianluca Misuraca: institutions

30:52

Gianluca Misuraca: and

30:53

Gianluca Misuraca: technologies

30:53

Gianluca Misuraca: are actually

30:55

Gianluca Misuraca: co evolving,

30:56

Gianluca Misuraca: and so we have to make sure that we have the correct governance systems to make this happen.

31:06

Alessandro Oppo: I was wondering what could be like the role of a citizen

31:11

Alessandro Oppo: that maybe

31:12

Gianluca Misuraca: Well, I mean,

31:14

Gianluca Misuraca: this has been for

31:17

Gianluca Misuraca: some time a bit

31:19

Gianluca Misuraca: maybe exaggerated

31:21

Gianluca Misuraca: in the sense, okay, we need to have the citizen participation,

31:24

Gianluca Misuraca: you know, the first movement of e democracy participation

31:28

Gianluca Misuraca: because everybody wants to participate.

31:30

Gianluca Misuraca: Well, maybe it's not so

31:32

Gianluca Misuraca: needed because

31:34

Gianluca Misuraca: at the end of the day who wants to participate?

31:37

Gianluca Misuraca: It's probably a limited

31:39

Gianluca Misuraca: part of society

31:41

Gianluca Misuraca: or, I mean, participate actively, of course, because then you always have some way of participating.

31:47

Gianluca Misuraca: But most importantly, the citizens,

31:50

Gianluca Misuraca: users in general, they want to be served in a way that they don't even

31:54

Gianluca Misuraca: notice or they don't need I mean, they can do anything.

31:59

Gianluca Misuraca: So I mean, the thing the service comes to you is even better. And the technologies today would allow that. I mean,

32:06

AI can personalise,

32:08

Gianluca Misuraca: customise

32:10

Gianluca Misuraca: the solutions for each of us. Of course, these are also some risks that we have to to to to to manage

32:17

and mitigate.

32:18

Gianluca Misuraca: But in

32:19

Gianluca Misuraca: general, we

32:21

Gianluca Misuraca: could

32:22

Gianluca Misuraca: actually listen from the citizens without actually asking them what they really want or need.

32:29

Gianluca Misuraca: And

32:31

Gianluca Misuraca: but on the other side, the current

32:33

Gianluca Misuraca: systems of stakeholders'

32:35

Gianluca Misuraca: consultations or

32:39

Gianluca Misuraca: participation

32:39

Gianluca Misuraca: are very are very, let's say,

32:43

Gianluca Misuraca: limited.

32:44

Gianluca Misuraca: So we definitely can do more. And again, technologies can allow for these,

32:50

Gianluca Misuraca: for these,

32:52

Gianluca Misuraca: let's say, increased participation,

32:54

Gianluca Misuraca: strengthening the the

32:56

Gianluca Misuraca: democratic

32:58

Gianluca Misuraca: participation.

32:59

Gianluca Misuraca: So we have a

33:01

Gianluca Misuraca: project

33:02

Gianluca Misuraca: called Orbis that was exactly trying with the Polytech in Milano leading it, that was

33:09

Gianluca Misuraca: trying to build

33:11

Gianluca Misuraca: experiment with different party platforms

33:14

Gianluca Misuraca: exactly that could

33:16

Gianluca Misuraca: increase

33:17

Gianluca Misuraca: the deliberation

33:19

Gianluca Misuraca: process of of the democratic systems. There's been quite interesting results.

33:25

Gianluca Misuraca: One of them in particular is using

33:28

Gianluca Misuraca: POLIS, for example. POLIS is

33:31

Gianluca Misuraca: a platform, open source, by the way, that

33:35

Gianluca Misuraca: has

33:36

Gianluca Misuraca: been used in several countries.

33:38

Gianluca Misuraca: It was started, I think, in Taiwan,

33:42

Gianluca Misuraca: and to to really ensure the citizens'

33:45

Gianluca Misuraca: participation,

33:46

Gianluca Misuraca: user,

33:47

Gianluca Misuraca: discussion.

33:49

Gianluca Misuraca: And this is now being adapted for different format in, in the experiment. So there are some

33:56

Gianluca Misuraca: opportunities

33:56

Gianluca Misuraca: there,

33:57

Gianluca Misuraca: but still probably we need more.

34:00

Gianluca Misuraca: There are also other

34:02

Gianluca Misuraca: initiatives.

34:03

Gianluca Misuraca: I'm, for example, involved in one at European level,

34:07

Gianluca Misuraca: humans, for example. They are launching some citizens'

34:10

Gianluca Misuraca: initiatives

34:12

Gianluca Misuraca: that could allow for participation

34:14

Gianluca Misuraca: of citizens

34:16

Gianluca Misuraca: in a different format using what is already available, because there are forms of participation

34:22

Gianluca Misuraca: like referendum

34:23

Gianluca Misuraca: or citizen initiative

34:25

Gianluca Misuraca: can be done. And technology can help in that case or could help actually increase the

34:34

Gianluca Misuraca: possibility, for instance, to

34:36

Gianluca Misuraca: gain

34:38

Gianluca Misuraca: support

34:39

Gianluca Misuraca: or

34:40

Gianluca Misuraca: to sign petitions,

34:41

Gianluca Misuraca: for example. So this is something where,

34:44

Gianluca Misuraca: I guess, we should do much more,

34:48

Gianluca Misuraca: and and probably that that would be something that parliaments in particular

34:54

Gianluca Misuraca: could do.

34:56

Alessandro Oppo: We had a small technical issue because part of the recording was lost, and that's why we are dressed in a different

35:03

way.

35:04

Alessandro Oppo: And, also,

35:05

Alessandro Oppo: in relation to this

35:07

Alessandro Oppo: technical problem, I I was thinking

35:11

Alessandro Oppo: when

35:12

Alessandro Oppo: our society will rely more even more on

35:17

Alessandro Oppo: technology

35:19

Alessandro Oppo: in relation to, I don't know, the public administration

35:22

Alessandro Oppo: or or our political system,

35:26

Alessandro Oppo: What could be

35:28

Alessandro Oppo: the problem when,

35:29

Alessandro Oppo: I mean, the technology doesn't work because most of the time it works?

35:34

Alessandro Oppo: And

35:34

Alessandro Oppo: also what could be some

35:37

Alessandro Oppo: maybe good practices to avoid this kind of problem?

35:43

Gianluca Misuraca: Well, thanks, Alessandro, for the question.

35:46

Gianluca Misuraca: Indeed, due

35:48

Gianluca Misuraca: to this

35:49

Gianluca Misuraca: technical issue,

35:50

Gianluca Misuraca: I mean, basically,

35:52

Gianluca Misuraca: this conversation

35:55

Gianluca Misuraca: is split into two.

35:57

Gianluca Misuraca: Last time, about three months ago, were addressing

36:01

Gianluca Misuraca: some of these topics and I mean three months ago, maybe

36:05

Gianluca Misuraca: a little time, but actually in this field

36:09

Gianluca Misuraca: it's a long period because a lot of things happened in the last few months and clearly we see how

36:15

Gianluca Misuraca: every day, I mean today I was in an event

36:19

Gianluca Misuraca: and someone mentioned that there are like 15 events per day on artificial intelligence

36:24

Gianluca Misuraca: and

36:25

Gianluca Misuraca: the topic is discussed

36:27

Gianluca Misuraca: in

36:29

Gianluca Misuraca: all

36:31

Gianluca Misuraca: environments.

36:32

Gianluca Misuraca: Of course in the public administration it is particularly relevant because

36:38

Gianluca Misuraca: this small

36:39

Gianluca Misuraca: glitch we had

36:41

Gianluca Misuraca: shouldn't happen in

36:44

Gianluca Misuraca: the public sector because we should be somehow in control and make sure that we use the technology

36:50

Gianluca Misuraca: to support and

36:51

Gianluca Misuraca: eventually augment our capacities as civil servants, as policymakers,

36:56

Gianluca Misuraca: as workers in general, and not just be instead

37:00

Gianluca Misuraca: managed

37:02

Gianluca Misuraca: by the technology. This is a big issue that the

37:05

Gianluca Misuraca: new

37:07

Gianluca Misuraca: let's say, generation of artificial intelligence

37:10

Gianluca Misuraca: now we are moving, you know, the agentic AI that in the last really

37:16

Gianluca Misuraca: few months was the

37:18

Gianluca Misuraca: keyword now

37:19

Gianluca Misuraca: is fading away and there is the physical AI

37:23

Gianluca Misuraca: topic and somehow this multi agent

37:27

Gianluca Misuraca: orchestration

37:30

Gianluca Misuraca: is what is taking place in many

37:34

Gianluca Misuraca: areas. And of course there are huge opportunities,

37:36

Gianluca Misuraca: this is clear, but there are also some

37:39

Gianluca Misuraca: possible

37:40

Gianluca Misuraca: threats

37:41

Gianluca Misuraca: and that's why indeed we need to reinforce our capacities as managers,

37:45

Gianluca Misuraca: as

37:46

Gianluca Misuraca: policymakers,

37:47

Gianluca Misuraca: as leaders to

37:49

Gianluca Misuraca: ensure that we have

37:53

Gianluca Misuraca: a governance system that allows us to take the decisions

37:57

Gianluca Misuraca: supported

37:58

Gianluca Misuraca: by these AI systems but also making sure that we are, as I said before, in control. That's why so when we

38:06

talked three months ago I was

38:08

Gianluca Misuraca: announcing that we

38:11

Gianluca Misuraca: just

38:12

Gianluca Misuraca: were about to start a

38:13

Gianluca Misuraca: new initiative that I had the pleasure to

38:16

Gianluca Misuraca: lead the AI Skills Academy,

38:19

Gianluca Misuraca: the project I call AISHA,

38:21

Gianluca Misuraca: because then we are building the hub where we are addressing, we are gathering together all those actors that are

38:28

Gianluca Misuraca: these important

38:30

Gianluca Misuraca: issues in how we build capacity,

38:32

Gianluca Misuraca: skills for the future generation.

38:35

Gianluca Misuraca: And this is a very

38:37

Gianluca Misuraca: important topic that the European Commission

38:41

Gianluca Misuraca: and all Member States are putting

38:43

Gianluca Misuraca: a lot of emphasis on because

38:46

Gianluca Misuraca: of course without the skills

38:49

Gianluca Misuraca: for the future we will not be able to

38:52

Gianluca Misuraca: manage and govern these

38:54

Gianluca Misuraca: new phenomenon.

38:55

Gianluca Misuraca: And also we need to ensure that we are competitive in all sectors,

39:00

Gianluca Misuraca: so

39:02

Gianluca Misuraca: making sure that once

39:03

Gianluca Misuraca: we embrace this technology

39:05

Gianluca Misuraca: we are actually

39:06

Gianluca Misuraca: capable of making the best of it. So this applies to all the sectors from agri food to manufacturing,

39:14

Gianluca Misuraca: transport,

39:15

Gianluca Misuraca: etc. But it's particularly important for the public

39:19

Gianluca Misuraca: sector because there we have multiple

39:21

Gianluca Misuraca: roles,

39:22

Gianluca Misuraca: not only to make the rules

39:25

Gianluca Misuraca: but also to use these technologies.

39:27

Gianluca Misuraca: Public sector is,

39:28

Gianluca Misuraca: in most countries,

39:30

Gianluca Misuraca: one of the biggest

39:32

Gianluca Misuraca: procurers of

39:33

Gianluca Misuraca: technology and artificial intelligence. And so we have to make sure also that

39:38

Gianluca Misuraca: we build a sovereign system.

39:40

Gianluca Misuraca: We are not just

39:42

Gianluca Misuraca: relying on,

39:45

Gianluca Misuraca: let's say, systems that can control

39:50

Gianluca Misuraca: our data and also we are not then

39:54

Gianluca Misuraca: independent

39:56

Gianluca Misuraca: from certain actors that in most cases unfortunately are not European. So also how the data are used, how we make sure

40:03

that also

40:04

Gianluca Misuraca: open source system, for instance,

40:06

Gianluca Misuraca: can be

40:07

Gianluca Misuraca: leveraged.

40:12

Alessandro Oppo: Yeah, last time I asked you,

40:15

Alessandro Oppo: what do you think about political parties that use

40:20

Alessandro Oppo: a platform to connect citizens

40:22

Alessandro Oppo: to

40:24

Alessandro Oppo: to the people that are elected?

40:26

Alessandro Oppo: So I was thinking about the Five Star Movement

40:29

Alessandro Oppo: example.

40:30

Alessandro Oppo: And if you think that this is

40:32

Alessandro Oppo: will happen again.

40:35

Gianluca Misuraca: Well, let me I mean, this is timely because exactly this morning in this event I met

40:41

Gianluca Misuraca: a former member of the government during

40:46

Gianluca Misuraca: one of the governments where the Five Star Movement in Italy was in charge

40:51

Gianluca Misuraca: and also a journalist.

40:53

Gianluca Misuraca: And we were talking about the fact that probably in the future,

40:58

Gianluca Misuraca: you know,

41:00

Gianluca Misuraca: some politician,

41:01

Gianluca Misuraca: some party may emerge that is actually against AI, right? And maybe they

41:07

Gianluca Misuraca: could, let's say, leverage this fear that could happen

41:12

Gianluca Misuraca: to get

41:14

Gianluca Misuraca: a lot of votes

41:15

Gianluca Misuraca: because it's true that artificial intelligence

41:18

Gianluca Misuraca: can

41:19

Gianluca Misuraca: and is disrupting our society for the good and for the bad, but also is going to have a huge impact on

41:26

the work.

41:28

Gianluca Misuraca: And I'll be back on this. But I mean, I don't know if I mentioned last time, but in, I mean, almost

41:36

twenty years ago, more than, yeah, twenty years ago when I was

41:41

Gianluca Misuraca: studying what

41:42

Gianluca Misuraca: we called at the time social computing, Web 2.0,

41:46

Gianluca Misuraca: I mean, basically the emergence of social media,

41:49

Gianluca Misuraca: We were doing I was at the time working

41:52

Gianluca Misuraca: in academia, called Politecnico delle Lausanne, but then I joined the European Commission, the Joint Research Centre Institute for

41:59

Gianluca Misuraca: Prospective

42:00

Gianluca Misuraca: Technological Studies. So we were looking at the future of technology, future impacts of technology. And we did a

42:08

Gianluca Misuraca: comprehensive study on the impact of

42:11

Gianluca Misuraca: social

42:12

Gianluca Misuraca: media technology,

42:13

Gianluca Misuraca: social networks

42:14

Gianluca Misuraca: on society. I was looking in particular

42:17

Gianluca Misuraca: at the use of social media, I don't know, by Obama. I remember Obama was one of the first

42:22

Gianluca Misuraca: making a campaign using

42:25

Gianluca Misuraca: Facebook and other social media. And then of course the phenomenon of the Five Star Movement in Italy was just emerging.

42:32

Gianluca Misuraca: And of course the Russo platform

42:34

Gianluca Misuraca: that has been also studied and looked in

42:37

Gianluca Misuraca: a critical way by many was potentially

42:40

Gianluca Misuraca: a very good instrument at the time because it could have, if genuinely,

42:49

Gianluca Misuraca: the possibility to reach

42:51

Gianluca Misuraca: out to different groups in society. And to a certain extent he did at the very beginning in order to make sure

42:58

that anyone

42:59

Gianluca Misuraca: could contribute.

43:00

Gianluca Misuraca: Then maybe an

43:03

Gianluca Misuraca: opportunity to discuss in an event where there was one on the, I mean, son of Casaleggio

43:08

Gianluca Misuraca: discussing also this topic

43:10

Gianluca Misuraca: that

43:12

Gianluca Misuraca: maybe at a certain point the

43:15

Gianluca Misuraca: human,

43:16

Gianluca Misuraca: let's say,

43:19

Gianluca Misuraca: maybe I don't know how to say, but

43:22

Gianluca Misuraca: the fact that humans then manipulated

43:25

Gianluca Misuraca: these platforms and made this maybe become not such a good instrument.

43:31

Gianluca Misuraca: But this doesn't mean that technology cannot be, if

43:35

Gianluca Misuraca: well

43:36

Gianluca Misuraca: structured,

43:37

Gianluca Misuraca: a good support for increasing citizen participation

43:41

Gianluca Misuraca: and democratic

43:43

Gianluca Misuraca: participation

43:44

Gianluca Misuraca: to support a deliberative democracy.

43:47

Gianluca Misuraca: I mean, as we know today is not the perfect instrument, this has been said by much more important people than me.

43:54

I think Churchill say that is the less

44:01

Gianluca Misuraca: worst of the

44:03

Gianluca Misuraca: systems that we have, but it's still the one that could be improved and indeed there has been an attempt and researchers

44:11

Gianluca Misuraca: are also part of a project led by

44:14

Gianluca Misuraca: Politecchiuti Milan on the use of

44:17

Gianluca Misuraca: AI systems to improve the

44:20

Gianluca Misuraca: deliberation

44:21

Gianluca Misuraca: part of the democratic participation.

44:24

Gianluca Misuraca: Clearly, we could use technologies to increase our evidence and make sure that we use data

44:30

Gianluca Misuraca: in a certain

44:32

Gianluca Misuraca: way.

44:34

Gianluca Misuraca: Clearly also social media could be used to gather feedback, perception, sentiments

44:39

Gianluca Misuraca: from citizens.

44:41

Gianluca Misuraca: Are they used? I wouldn't say that we have

44:44

Gianluca Misuraca: advanced much from probably what we hoped it could have been done maybe

44:49

Gianluca Misuraca: twenty years ago.

44:51

Gianluca Misuraca: On the other side, unfortunately,

44:53

Gianluca Misuraca: has been a lot of misuse of technologies

44:56

Gianluca Misuraca: actually for increasing disinformation,

44:58

Gianluca Misuraca: for

44:59

Gianluca Misuraca: making polarisation

45:01

Gianluca Misuraca: actually

45:02

Gianluca Misuraca: by design somehow,

45:04

Gianluca Misuraca: because we see now that many platforms are using,

45:07

Gianluca Misuraca: let's say, systems to increase the

45:11

Gianluca Misuraca: negative and the opposite

45:13

Gianluca Misuraca: discussion.

45:14

Gianluca Misuraca: And this of course is creating tensions,

45:17

Gianluca Misuraca: is making our society even more fragmented

45:20

Gianluca Misuraca: in the virtual world but then also in

45:23

Gianluca Misuraca: the real world. So clearly this is where also

45:27

Gianluca Misuraca: the European Union in particular, but in general at the global level there is

45:32

Gianluca Misuraca: an attempt to regulate

45:34

Gianluca Misuraca: also on this and now there are discussions,

45:38

Gianluca Misuraca: for instance, under the Digital Service Act or the Digital Market Act in the European Union, but also some countries are proposing,

45:45

for instance, to limit the use of certain

45:48

Gianluca Misuraca: social media etc.

45:50

Gianluca Misuraca: Artificial intelligence is of course and generative AI in particular playing a big role there and because it can be really used

45:57

as a weapon. And unfortunately it is used especially during political

46:01

Gianluca Misuraca: campaigns.

46:02

Gianluca Misuraca: That's why it's welcome,

46:05

Gianluca Misuraca: for instance, in Italy there has been an agreement, okay, it's not a big issue by political parties

46:10

Gianluca Misuraca: not to use certain features

46:13

Gianluca Misuraca: like

46:17

Gianluca Misuraca: the deep fake

46:19

Gianluca Misuraca: during

46:20

Gianluca Misuraca: the electoral campaigns.

46:21

Gianluca Misuraca: And clearly this is an area that

46:25

Gianluca Misuraca: will require also more experimentation

46:27

Gianluca Misuraca: because I think the behaviours of citizens

46:31

Gianluca Misuraca: is very much affected by

46:34

Gianluca Misuraca: certain technologies.

46:35

Gianluca Misuraca: So

46:36

Gianluca Misuraca: on one side we need to probably limit

46:39

Gianluca Misuraca: certain uses, but on the other side we should experiment and see what actually could be a good way of using these

46:47

technologies.

46:49

Alessandro Oppo: And

46:51

Alessandro Oppo: for the last question is, do you have any message for

46:55

Alessandro Oppo: all the people

46:56

Alessandro Oppo: that are working, I don't know, in digital transformation,

46:59

Alessandro Oppo: political tech

47:00

Alessandro Oppo: in general?

47:03

Gianluca Misuraca: Well, I mean, of course, I'm biased, but

47:06

Gianluca Misuraca: clearly the most important thing is

47:09

Gianluca Misuraca: that to reinforce our

47:12

Gianluca Misuraca: capacities,

47:13

Gianluca Misuraca: our skills, because we are

47:15

Gianluca Misuraca: in a situation where we are at risk and when I say we, all of us, of course the younger

47:22

Gianluca Misuraca: generation more

47:24

Gianluca Misuraca: because of course they are those that will

47:27

Gianluca Misuraca: also use this technology more, are born

47:30

Gianluca Misuraca: with these technologies and they will be the leader

47:33

Gianluca Misuraca: of tomorrow.

47:34

Gianluca Misuraca: So we

47:36

Gianluca Misuraca: are at risk of a cognitive,

47:38

Gianluca Misuraca: let's say,

47:41

Gianluca Misuraca: degeneration.

47:42

Gianluca Misuraca: So these technologies are potentially

47:45

Gianluca Misuraca: producing and there are now studies coming up that have

47:49

Gianluca Misuraca: some negative effect on our cognitive capacity. So that's one area where we have to be

47:56

Gianluca Misuraca: careful in how we

47:59

Gianluca Misuraca: use these technologies. That's why we have to

48:02

Gianluca Misuraca: make sure that we are also ready for embracing the complexity

48:07

Gianluca Misuraca: that this technology has. And this is not only at the individual level because of course we can be super

48:13

Gianluca Misuraca: expert

48:14

Gianluca Misuraca: but it's more at the organisational level and broadly speaking at the social level that we need to make sure that we

48:21

have

48:23

Gianluca Misuraca: the capacities,

48:24

Gianluca Misuraca: the competencies and the skills for managing this

48:28

Gianluca Misuraca: phenomenon. We are really in an unexplored

48:32

Gianluca Misuraca: territory

48:33

Gianluca Misuraca: so it's all new and we know some of the known unknowns, but we don't know much of the unknown unknowns that

48:40

are those that could be the most

48:43

Gianluca Misuraca: dangerous,

48:44

Gianluca Misuraca: but also those

48:45

Gianluca Misuraca: that could create a more

48:47

Gianluca Misuraca: interesting and inspiring

48:49

Gianluca Misuraca: futures for us all and for the next generations.

48:54

Alessandro Oppo: Thank you a lot Gianluca and hopefully this time the recording will

48:59

Alessandro Oppo: be saved.

49:01

Gianluca Misuraca: So and thanks a lot and I'm happy to maybe have another conversation

49:07

Gianluca Misuraca: in another three months, but

49:09

Gianluca Misuraca: hopefully they help it.

49:12

Alessandro Oppo: Absolutely, thank you again.