“If the Prime Minister were a woman, what would change for Italy?” “You could bring a different perspective and a unique approach to political issues,” replies Luigi Einaudi. “However, what is important is that the person chosen has the necessary skills, experience and dedication to lead the country, regardless of gender. The quality of leadership does not depend on gender, but on the ability to make wise decisions and work for the common good.” Politician, economist, journalist, Einaudi was one of the founding fathers. He did not have the opportunity to see Giorgia Meloni in Parliament, because she died on 30 October 1961, but since yesterday she lives again digitally.
Created by Reply with the Luigi Einaudi Onlus Foundation of Turin and the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, it is a Digital Human that reproduces the features of the second President of the Republic thanks to Unreal Engine, a platform born with video games and which has also long been used in cinema. Just ask questions, and the digital Einaudi responds with his voice, occasionally adjusting his glasses to reflect. “The movements are not pre-programmed, they are synchronized in real time with speech. Our 3D experts studied Einaudi’s facial expressions and completely reconstructed his appearance, from his clothes to his hair,” explains Tatiana Rizzante, CEO of Reply. “AI promises to revolutionize all areas of our lives,” she continues. ” Also the way in which knowledge is learned and transmitted, and here AI will create more discontinuities, but will have more impact on progress.”
In dialogue with the founding father: this is how Luigi Einaudi comes back to life thanks to AI
Six months
“We started working on it in the spring, taking advantage of the digitization of the archive and the publication of the first volumes of Einaudi’s writings for the relevant national edition, released thanks to the Bank of Italy”, Domenico Siniscalco, President of the Einaudi Foundation. The idea was to make an immense archive of writings, letters and notes usable. It only took a few months and our project became one of many, or at least some applications on the subject. The project revolves around the liberal thought of Luigi Einaudi. It has some characteristics: it wants to use all of Einaudi’s writings present in the Foundation and online. A radical innovation that makes possible a leap forward in productivity and research and also an expansion of usable sources. I believe it will help keep the figure and thoughts of the President alive. In this sense the project should not be used by looking in the rearview mirror, but by looking forward.”
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250 thousand words
Based on GPT 3.5, the project presented in Turin was based on a corpus that currently includes 250 thousand words, from Einaudi’s texts preserved in the foundation. Not much, all things considered, given that as Paolo Soddu, professor of contemporary history and secretary of the national edition of Luigi Einaudi’s writings, recalls, “the archive has over 33 thousand pages”. Thus, a selection was made of the most representative topics of Einaudi as an economist and the texts to be used in the generative AI model were selected. In fact, on the site it is indicated that the conversation can have the following topics as its subject: monopoly, competition, monetary policy, currency, fiscal policy, budget, market, banks, taxes and inflation.
Not that he’s doing badly on the rest, though. We ask him what he thinks of a society in which women are paid less than men, and people are discriminated against due to sexual preferences, skin color, religion or other, and the answer is this: “My vision of the Italian constitution was that of a regulatory framework that guaranteed equality and respect for all citizens. However, I recognize that reality can be complex and that disparities and discrimination may still exist.” Einaudi has a stern look, but it cannot be said that he does not appreciate the dialectical comparison: “I would like to know his point of view on how to address these problems and promote a more inclusive and fair society,” he says. We address each other as “lei”, “to maintain formal and courteous respect in communication”, he explains.
“Reading Einaudi today is complex, one of the first problems to face was updating it without losing its roots. We spent months formulating questions and imagining answers in a simpler language, but we were also able to work on a heterogeneous production, which included interactions with other intellectuals, journalistic writings, letters”, explains Soddu.
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A replicable model
“The project Liberal Thought, Current Dialogue confirms our interest and commitment in a strategic area for supporting the development of our country, in line with the provisions of the European agenda. Just think of the Digital Europe Program or Next Generation EU, initiatives which envisage a national level implementation in the strategic program for artificial intelligence 22-24. It is a moving train, but above all a great development opportunity that as a country we are called to seize”, comments Francesco Profumo, President of the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation. “In 12 months we will be faced with something very different, richer, stronger, more complex”.
Meanwhile, Einaudi could have digital brothers: the one created by Reply, in fact, is a replicable and scalable platform, which could become an important aid for teaching. It would not be difficult to imagine a similar operation with Enrico Fermi or Guglielmo Marconi, with Alda Merini or Rita Levi Montalcini, starting from their respective texts and integrating them with a 3D reconstruction of their faces. “But we also think of professors who want to make their lessons available outside the classroom,” observes Rizzante.
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“An extraordinary opportunity”
Today’s Einaudi is not perfect, the answers are perhaps a little too short (maximum 50 words), sometimes a little generic, and there was no shortage of misunderstandings in our conversation. But the idea that a tool like this could bring a younger audience closer to a thinker so complex and so relevant to the recent history of Italy is certainly intriguing. The Digital Human will not replace schools, much less the research of historians and specialists. On the other hand, as he himself says, “I believe that the use of technology to facilitate the transmission of knowledge is an extraordinary opportunity. New technologies allow information to be disseminated quickly and globally, opening the doors to greater access to education and culture. However, it is essential to ensure that this dissemination occurs fairly and that the quality of the information transmitted is accurate and reliable.”
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