"In an ideal world, AI should help students rediscover the meaning of the educational process."

The big challenges that AI brings are related to ethics, privacy and regulation. States will need to invest in technology infrastructure and training to promote the responsible adoption of AI, as well as fostering collaborations between universities, start-ups and large companies.

Almacube is the reference Innovation Hub of the Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna. Technology transfer is your field, so university research that becomes innovative enterprise, researchers that become entrepreneurs.

Is it fair to ask today how university education is changing thanks to AI Gen? 

I was reading recently that the Harvard Undergraduate Association commissioned a study to understand how GenAI impacts university students. Basically, it appears that there is much to be done on issues such as ethics and regulation for a more conscious and 'wise' use of AI. For research and writing, in particular, AI is used intensively and unregulated by students. In an ideal world, AI should help students to rediscover the meaning of the educational process, which is not limited to being a form of 'training', but a set of tools to imagine and build the future.

The WTO (world trade organisation) says that 3 out of 5 of the 'trades' our daughters and sons will do today don't even exist...so how can we teach them? We can't, no one can. The only thing we can do is teach them to learn. In this the AI GEN is a powerful tool, but as such it must be 'handled with care'.

From your observatory, what is the growth rate of a spin-off or start-up adopting AI Gen?

It is difficult to indicate now a precise and valid growth rate for all start-ups/spin-offs that are adopting generative AI; much depends on the sector in which they operate.

For example, in Italy, sectors such as fashion, design, tourism and manufacturing could see accelerated growth thanks to the integration of generative AI, especially with respect to personalisation of the user experience and operational efficiency. Our Startup & Spin-off Unit certainly uses generative AI tools, especially to try to keep up on multiple fronts and multiple projects.

We also pay special attention to start-ups and spin-offs that develop new AI GEN tools and services for existing companies.

On the other hand, the question arises as to whether AI GEN will one day replace the role of incubators as well, but we, who teach these things to start-ups, know that we will have to be ready to handle the 'creative destruction' that this entails, and we believe that much of our value lies in people and the relationships they create. I am convinced that AI still has a long way to go before it can compete on this level, if at all.

Almacube is an innovation hub that supports research spin-offs and innovative start-ups with high underlying science and technology in order to grow and build a role in national and international markets.

How do you support these realities and through which instruments?

Almacube is more than an incubator as it not only supports start-ups/spin-offs but also connects these with two other key targets: established companies and young talent.

In fact, it is a real platform that promotes collaboration and exchange between academic research, large companies, SMEs and start-ups. We focus in particular on Deep-Tech, because on the one hand many projects coming from the university have this characterisation, being based on advanced technologies, and on the other hand our link with the academic world represents an added value to provide high-level technical-scientific support to 'external' projects that can benefit from the university context. We therefore offer one or more advanced incubation programmes each year.

The last of these has applications open until 11 October 2024 and is called 'Great-ER' - Growing and Empowering Advanced Technologies in Emilia-Romagna. It is an 11-month advanced incubation programme, dedicated to deep tech projects of start-ups and research spin-offs, early stage (i.e. in the very first phases of life, immediately after incorporation, or even just before founding the company). The 12 selected projects will receive free services worth around €20,000 each between February and December 2025.

The peculiarity and strength of this project, realised thanks to the European Funds of the Emilia-Romagna Region, is that it stems from the partnership between Almacube and the 4 regional universities: Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, University of Ferrara, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, University of Parma. In short, we are a good team both in terms of skills and 'connections' and this must represent