Program
- 9:30–10:00 Registration
- 10:00–10:15 Opening Remarks (Eugenio Giani, President of Regione Toscana; Alessandro Schiesaro, President of Istituto Ciampi & Director of Scuola Normale Superiore)
- 10:15–10:45 Keynote: The AI paradox – A guide for responsible humans (Virginia Dignum, Umeå University), (Chair: Fosca Giannotti)
- 10:45–12:15 Panel 1: The impact of AI on gender and intersecting inequalities (Chair: Emanuela Lombardo)
- 10:45–11:00 Salvatore Ruggieri, Università di Pisa
- 11:00–11:15 Federica Merenda, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
- 11:15–11:30 Veronica Punzo, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
- 11:30–11:45 Sonia Ruiz García, Coordinadora, Diputació de Barcelona
- 11:45–12:15 Q&A
- 12:15–12:30 Presentation of the Regional AI Law (Gianluca Vannuccini, Regione Toscana)
- 12:30–15:00 Lunch break. Lunch is not included; nearby restaurants and cafes are available.
- 15:00–16:30 Panel 2: Measuring the impact of online platforms on society (Chair: Luca Pappalardo)
- 15:00–15:15 Alistair Knott, Victoria University of Wellington
- 15:15–15:30 Dino Pedreschi, Università di Pisa
- 15:30–15:45 Giuseppe Riva, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan
- 15:45–16:00 Fiorella Battaglia, Università del Salento, LMU München
- 16:00–16:30 Q&A
- 16:30–18:00 Panel 3: The global AI race and the military digital complex (Chair: Hans-Jörg Trenz)
- 16:30–16:45 Dario Guarascio, Sapienza Università di Roma
- 16:45–17:00 Agustín José Menéndez, Universidad Complutense, Madrid
- 17:00–17:15 Mario Pianta, Scuola Normale Superiore
- 17:15–17:30 Annamaria Simonazzi, Sapienza University of Rome
- 17:30–18:00 Q&A
- 18:00–18:30 Choral Closing Remarks
Panel abstracts
Panel 1: The impact of AI on gender and intersecting inequalities
Artificial intelligence promises faster, more efficient decisions, but who gets left out when an algorithm decides who deserves a loan, a job interview, or a place in school? This panel tackles the question from four complementary angles. It starts with method: which statistical tools can genuinely uncover whether a system discriminates, including when discrimination arises from the intersection of multiple factors at once, such as gender, age, and origin. It then moves to theory: what changes when we look at artificial intelligence through the lens of gender, and how society’s biases end up being learned, and sometimes amplified, by algorithms. The discussion then broadens to public policy, with a concrete question: how to develop an inclusive approach to artificial intelligence in European schools, and who gets left behind if digital literacy isn’t designed for everyone. It closes on the real economy of digital labour platforms, where gender inequalities haven’t disappeared, but have transformed, and on what public policy can do to address them.
Panel 2: Measuring the impact of online platforms on society
Every day, billions of people entrust part of their choices to digital platforms, what to read, where to go, what to buy, without really knowing how the mechanisms behind those suggestions work. This panel tries to measure that impact from four different points of view. It starts with the regulatory dimension, asking what legal obligations companies developing AI-generated content should have, at a time when telling truth from falsehood online is becoming ever harder. It then turns to the actual behaviour of users, looking at how people and the algorithms watching them end up shaping each other, in a self-reinforcing loop within the social media and navigation systems we use every day. The third talk looks inside the mind of those who learn with the help of artificial intelligence, and asks an uncomfortable question: the more comfortable a tool is, the more it risks stunting the very cognitive growth it should be supporting. It closes with a more philosophical reflection on how the constant profiling of our online behaviour ends up changing not just what we see, but who we think we are.
Panel 3: The global AI race and the military digital complex
Behind the global race for artificial intelligence are not only research laboratories and start-ups, but also armies and defence ministries, with billions of euros in public investment. This panel reveals the hidden yet profound connection between AI and warfare by examining the increasingly close relationship between major technology platforms and military establishments, who are often their main clients. It then takes a legal and political look at the European Union, which has declared its ambition to achieve full strategic autonomy in defence, yet remains closely tied to NATO and US suppliers in practice. The third talk offers a broader political and economic perspective on how military digital spending is intertwined with globalisation and ongoing geopolitical tensions. The panel concludes with a discussion of a question that affects us all: who really pays the price of this arms race and how are its economic consequences distributed differently across European countries, exacerbating existing imbalances?