Artificial intelligence, Italy wary: half the country more worried than enthusiastic
The Pew Research Center photographs a cautious and disillusioned country, where most people know (but not too much) about the Ia, but few believe in the ability of Rome and Brussels to manage its impact
According to the new report by the Pew Research Center, published on 15 October and based on more than 28,000 interviews in 25 countries, our country is among those in which concern about AI far outweighs enthusiasm. Approximately one in two Italians say they are "more concerned than enthusiastic" about the increasing use of artificial intelligence in everyday life. Only a minority are optimistic, while the rest of the sample expresses mixed feelings: enthusiasm and anxiety, hope and fear.
In Europe, only Greece and France show a level of anxiety comparable to that of Italy. What worries Italians most is the loss of human control, the risks to their jobs and the invasiveness of technology in public decision-making processes. Ia is perceived as a powerful but difficult force to harness and the central issue remains trust in those who have to govern it.
On this very point, the data are eloquent: only 41% of Italians say they trust their government to effectively regulate artificial intelligence, against a global average of 55%. European Union fares even worse: barely four out of ten Italians believe that Brussels is capable of defining balanced and transparent rules for the use of AI (despite the AI Act representing one of the most comprehensive and ambitious regulatory frameworks in the world), a figure that places Italy among the most sceptical countries on the continent along with Greece and Poland.
The picture changes slightly when looking at internal differences.Young adults, especially those under 35, say they are better informed and more open to technological innovation. Almost 60 per cent of them say they have 'heard a lot' about artificial intelligence, compared to less than 30 per cent among the over-50s. The level of education and frequent use of the Internet also influences perceptions: those with university studies or who use the Internet 'almost constantly' tend to be more confident and less afraid.
The polarisation is also evident in the relationship between gender and technology: women are on average more distrustful than men, less inclined to trust institutions and more concerned about the social consequences of automation. This is a sign of a debate that is still immature, where knowledge of AI remains superficial and fears are mixed with a sense of technological exclusion.
