In the third wave, after those of the 50s and 90s, artificial intelligence has achieved unquestionably spectacular results. In its generative incarnation, for those who know how to use it, this technology actually seems to increase the productivity of the best “creatives” by providing them with an assistant who takes care of all the time-wasting work. 2023 is the year in which the debate on the consequences of cognitive automation leaves the world of specialists or managers of the production chains of goods or services, to enter the direct experience of consumers and professionals.
This can also be seen in the program of the Trento Festival of Economics which shows how that technology now leaves the context of specialists and is confronted with the themes of work, publishing, finance, money, and so on.
The expectations of the digital economy
It’s not obvious. Indeed, the digital economy often thrives on expectations that are, so to speak, greater than its reference demand. This has been seen, for example, in the rapid deflation of the metaverse theme, or in the inability of blockchain analytics to completely disengage from the looming weight of cryptocurrencies and speculative forms of innovation. It is better to pay attention to the more subtle analyzes on the matter, since if it is very clear that digital currencies have not gone through a period of great credibility, after the emergence of several cases of dubious management by some of the most important companies in the sector, it is also true that the blockchain is not condemned to follow its speculative vicissitudes as it is an expensive technology but applicable to many other topics. So the blockchain platforms that seem to enjoy the most credibility are precisely those that, beyond the links with various forms of currency, manage to develop business models extended to the many applications of the blockchain.
A displacement in many human activities
But the point is that artificial intelligence still seems to have passed the stage of doubts about its future. And it took center stage. On the one hand, cognitive automation continues to advance in the deep dimensions of the economy, from the analysis of production data to the increasingly accurate modeling of processes, with the consequent rationalization of choices in the field of logistics, predictive maintenance, quality improvement. But, on the other hand, the experimentation carried out by hundreds of millions of users of the models which allow text, images, video, audio to be automatically produced, with surprising quality on the basis of inputs in natural language, suggests that the results in this case are not they will be relegated to the self-referential space of expectations. Festival guests such as Aaron Benanav and Daniel Susskind, respectively a sociologist at Syracuse University and an economist at Oxford University, for example, take it for granted that there will be a strong displacement of many human activities that may radically evolve on the basis of the of artificial intelligence, and focus their reflection around the adjustment that will be necessary in human societies that will face this change: underlining the need for new social relations, new institutions dedicated to education, new forms of social protection, and so on .
The effects on publishing and beyond
Moreover, the theme of artificial intelligence will not be absent from the debate on publishing prospects which can also be followed at the Festival with the panel in which Mirja Cartia d’Asero, managing director of the 24 Ore Group and John Ridding, CEO of the Financial Times Group. And on the other hand, with Roberto Viola, director general of DGConnect, the question will also be addressed in the framework of the complex regulatory strategy launched by the European Commission.