Ethics & Society Stage

AI is not just a technological matter but a phenomenon that profoundly influences social, cultural, and ethical dynamics. This room provides a space for discussing the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence, including its integration into daily life, its effects on language and communication, and the human role in interactions with machines. An opportunity to reflect on how to build a digital future that is collaborative, inclusive, and sustainable.
Note: The program is still being finalized and may be subject to changes.

Ethics & Society

Room Hosting

Roberta Russo
Roberta Russo
President
Donne 4.0
27 feb 12:20 - 12:40
20 min
Artificial intelligence represents a powerful mix of opportunities for economic, technological, and scientific growth, alongside significant risks to society and democracy. Phenomena such as disinformation and algorithmic discrimination can deeply undermine the pillars of the rule of law, yet regulating these issues is far from simple. How can we strike the right balance?Oreste Pollicino and Andrea Dambrosio discuss these challenges, drawing insights from their book "Artificial Intelligence and Democracy" (Bocconi University Press).
27 feb 12:40 - 13:00
20 min
Awarded by Google at the global “Gemini API Developer Competition” for its social impact, VITE VERE is an app designed to support people with intellectual disabilities on their path to independent living. By integrating AI with a simple and intuitive interface, it provides support tools for managing daily life—ranging from home activities to mobility and work—through image analysis and voice guidance. An example of how technology can promote autonomy and inclusion.
27 feb 14:00 - 14:40
40 min
AI Experience (AIX) urges us to look beyond the noise and reconsider AI's role in our daily lives. Rather than focusing on AI as a tool for delivering products or automating tasks, AIX centers on its real-world impact on people. While AI adoption struggles with issues of scale, trust, ethics, and its failure to address specific human needs, AIX offers a framework for crafting purposeful, human-centered experiences by emphasizing four key principles: 
Specificity: to make AI work for each of us and respond to individual needs;Trust: to make AI’s outputs reliable, safe, and explainable;Attention: to have AI prioritize what matters to us rather than others’ goals and priorities;Agency: to preserve our freedom and free will.
AIX envisions AI as a partner that amplifies human intent, creating experiences that enrich our lives rather than diminishing them.

27 feb 14:50 - 15:30
40 min
Have you ever thought of the Golem as the first AI? Or of magical formulas as the first prompts, used to create actions and reactions from nothing? And of automated translation as a mirror reflecting social and cultural dynamics? We interpret reality subjectively, passing our biases on to machines while expecting objectivity from them.As a linguist with a degree in Anthropology turned Digital Marketing professional, I will explore an anthropological journey through the history of the relationship between humans and machines, humanity and technology, to uncover the strengths and weaknesses of a connection that shapes both our present and our future.
27 feb 15:40 - 16:20
40 min
Exploring why many AI integrations fail and how successful AI transformations are the ones that focus on human factors - from change management to skill development to psychological safety. Will also include very real and concrete examples and takeaways. This is a topic where I believe my background in both human-centred design and AI positions me uniquely to discuss the human elements often overlooked in technical AI implementations.