Indispensable infrastructure for the country's future

Opportunity or retrograde frenzy? The debate on Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds sway in Italy: from the cafeteria to dinner with friends, from group chats to talk shows on television. It would seem a positive sign, a promise of progress and awareness for a key technology of the future. But the truth, uncomfortable and persistent, is that public discourse is enveloped in a narrative dominated by fear and suspicion, slowing down a true digital revolution that could transform the Bel Paese. A vision often polluted by rearguard positions that see AI as a threat to employment, privacy, and the very dignity of the individual. It is hard to imagine a more fertile ground for these collective anxieties than a country like ours, which in Europe ranks last in terms of digital skills and where the culture of digital innovation lags behind its European partners. There is a congenital and homegrown tendency to focus on risks rather than opportunities. Certainly, concerns about AI, its ethical and social impacts, deserve attention. However, if the discussion is always framed in terms of risk, we preclude any attempt to build a future in which AI can truly contribute to the economic and social development of our country. Artificial Intelligence must be seen as a new infrastructure, an element that, in the future, will become as indispensable as PCs, mobile phones, and everything else that has transformed our lives, our societies, and our economies over the last century. Halting its development in Italy also means forcing our 'Made in Italy' into a deadly impasse. In the absence of a clear and shared strategy, the risk is that our leading sectors will find themselves chasing an increasingly fierce and global competition with obsolete tools. Accepting AI as an integral part of Italy's industrial future implies rethinking the entire value chain. If up to now our manufacturing identity has hinged on excellence and material quality, today we must accept that innovation no longer passes only through the raw material or the finished product. AI technologies pave the way for a second operating cycle, parallel to the traditional one, but based on data, in which value comes not only from physical production, but from the ability to collect, analyse and exploit information to make decisions and generate actions in real time. However, this transition requires a cultural leap that is still too far removed from the Italian corporate mentality. Too often, in our industrial landscape, we are under the illusion that intuition is enough to maintain competitiveness. Yet without a profound digital transformation, our companies risk losing the very excellence that has made them unique until now. The real challenge is to understand that the 'savoir faire' of the future also includes knowing how to treat data as a valuable and strategic resource, capable of enhancing the value of Made in Italy products on a global scale. The data infrastructure is our highway to the future. Just as in the post-war period we built the Autostrada del Sole to physically connect the country and facilitate the exchange of goods and people, today we need a digital infrastructure, a connective system for data. We imagine a 'National Foundation for AI', an institute that would centralise, enhance and safeguard Italian data (organised by sector of choice) to enable our productive fabric to develop algorithms trained on our specificities. This is not a technological fad, but a fundamental step to maintain independence and exploit the enormous potential of our productive capacity. Without this type of infrastructure at the service of the entire country system, we would be forced to import systems trained elsewhere, designed on cultures and economic needs that have little to do with our own.

Italy has always sought to maintain a distinctive and competitive position in the world: giving up a national infrastructure for AI means resigning ourselves to a future of technological and cultural dependence. The crux of the matter is to overcome fear and embrace change. The AI challenge is also a challenge of trust and vision.