How universities can overcome the paradoxes of artificial intelligence

There is a need, therefore, for a strong focus on skills.

Even Mario Draghi, in the Future of European Competitiveness Report, emphasised that it is more essential than ever to invest in human capital in order to close the 'skills gap' in the EU. About three quarters of the companies in the Old Continent, in fact, face difficulties in finding employees with the right skills and, in the future, the challenge may become even harder. The competitiveness of the Union and the success of the European economic model, starting with the implementation of the green and digital transition, require the right knowledge and skills. Draghi's warning should be taken seriously, by reviewing the European approach to talent training in order to make it more strategic and future-oriented.

Universities, in this framework, can and must play a leading role in designing innovative paths that meet these needs. They are called upon to open up to the outside world, to be interconnected nodes of a global network of knowledge, places of dialogue and human interaction, guides for young people towards the realisation of their individual talents, training them in creativity, critical thinking, spreading the meaning of the values of diversity and multiculturalism.

Today, we are also witnessing a transformation in the role of the manager. As highlighted in a study conducted by Letian Zhang, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard, the increase in task complexity and a new management philosophy have reduced the need for direct supervision, generating a greater demand for profiles with high teamwork management skills. And this is even more true in business contexts that value innovation.

This is an absolutely central issue and institutions of higher education must be at the forefront in embracing the critical success factors of managers of our time. To train leaders with collaborative skills, it is necessary to strengthen the humanities, promoting a culture that is not only technocratic, but extends to personal and life skills.

Designing tomorrow's university also means creating new learning models that also take into account the transformations of Artificial Intelligence in higher education systems worldwide, recognising its benefits in teaching and research.

The Digital Education Council shows that 86% of female students already use AI. Almost one in four does so on a daily basis as an assistant in the studio. However, just under half feel prepared to face a working future transformed by the digital revolution. Girls and boys expect to receive more targeted training from universities in the use of AI, which is now a basic skill.

It is therefore incumbent on us educators not only to train students in AI literacy, but also to rethink the content of traditional educational programmes, rewriting syllabi and integrating them with the use of new technologies.

Artificial Intelligence is also an extraordinary booster in research productivity. The field of pharmacology, for example, has seen processes accelerated and enhanced that would otherwise take extremely long and costly.

Some scholars prefer, therefore, to speak of 'augmented intelligence', precisely to emphasise the collaboration between the person and the machine, as opposed to the substitution of information technology for human intelligence.

And this is precisely the task of universities: to govern AI so that it does not take the place of cognitive work, but rather becomes an assistant capable of enhancing the abilities of the human being and enhancing them.

How can we achieve this? By building learning models that adapt machines to the values of the person, according to 'human in the loop' approaches, working not only on tools, but above all on the ability to formulate problems, to explore, to experiment by leveraging reflexive inclinations and the development of critical thinking.

This is one of the ethical questions posed by Artificial Intelligence. And the historical moment we are living in allows us to think and act so that AI is truly at the service of humanity: we are called upon to build a tomorrow that knows how to keep man at the centre, thus ushering in the era of Human Artificial Intelligence.

Only in this way can the university meet the challenge of overcoming the paradoxes of AI and unleash its incredible potential as a valuable technology.

Rector, Luiss Guido Carli University