What is the situation in Italy regarding the impact of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) on the population?

Opportunities and critical issues related to the use of ICT certainly emerged during the pandemic period. According to Istat, in 2022 there was a significant percentage increase in the number of people (aged six and over) who browsed online compared to observations from previous years; a large growth in online sales was also recorded. Obviously, it is easy to trace this acceleration back to the period of isolation. However, again according to Istat, in 2021 just under half of the population residing in Italy possessed at least basic digital skills, with a rather high gap compared to several European countries.
While it is true that habitual use of technology helps to build confidence, it is fundamental to work on the awareness of how these technologies function and the risks they may entail.

In your research group, Social Informatics and Technology Assessment, you have conducted several studies specifically on the digitalization process forced by pandemic events. What has emerged?

Analyzing the massive use that schools and universities had to make of ICT, we saw how, on one hand, this accelerated the spread of digital technology use, but on the other, it highlighted weaknesses. These concerned not only connection deficiencies in many areas and the lack of devices available to the student and teaching community, accentuated by differing economic conditions. Above all, the need for innovative pedagogical models emerged, capable of engaging the class even remotely. What subsequent experiences have shown us is that school teaching is difficult to replace with online modes because human contact remains central, but the tools can be complementary and support learning and engagement.

A topic being discussed with increasing frequency is the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)…

Yes, the use of AI is daily and widespread; think of tools like voice assistants, which help us schedule and organize our activities, or the applications of AI in medicine during the diagnostic phase but also in research on therapies, which can become increasingly personalized. This is a field in which research and pharmaceutical companies themselves are investing heavily and towards which people hold a certain level of trust.
There are also uses related to security, both in the environmental sector, where artificial intelligence can help predict and prevent catastrophic events, and also understood in terms of security and social control.

For example?

Camera systems connected to AI tools allow for pervasive monitoring of public spaces, such as airports, enabling the rapid identification of potentially risky behavior. This also occurs with some security systems for private environments, often used to monitor, for example, the elderly living alone; these are systems that send alerts if they intercept a dangerous situation.

What are the implications of this type of use?

Naturally, these applications pose non-trivial ethical and privacy issues regarding being constantly monitored and the use of this information.

How do you evaluate the public debate on these issues?

In the scientific community, attention to these aspects is very strong, while it does not seem to be the same for the general public. Let’s take, for example, the alarms installed in homes against theft. The more they are remotely controllable, the more an intrusion is possible. Having this awareness would be important, not to avoid using these tools, but to decide how to use them best. It is similar to the discussion regarding social networks. Those who use them are not always aware of being in a public “place,” and this also emerges from the many cases of aggressive phenomena occurring online. Education on the use of these tools is truly important.

Let’s return to what you said earlier, to the fact that Italy is one of the last countries for digital skills, which means knowledge of technologies but also knowledge of risks. In your opinion, who has the task of providing this training?

Schools and universities certainly have a very important role. And this is not only if we think of the new generations. We have already observed in many experiences that sending a message to a child means educating their entire family. National programs promoting specific actions to be conducted with the support of voluntary associations and other actors are also important, as they were, for example, in the dissemination of tools to combat bullying. All these technologies have enormous potential if used well. To use them well, it is necessary to work extensively on the dissemination of knowledge regarding both the technologies and their positive and negative impacts.

What phenomena does the study of online population behavior allow us to understand?

Almost all social behaviors are reflected online; many studies concern, for example, phenomena of gender-based violence, cyberbullying, etc. Big Companies understood this before everyone else and began profiling us to predict and perhaps even induce needs, and thus organize their business plans as effectively as possible. In the end, it is something that has also been understood and implemented in politics. So, we return to the issue of awareness…

What are the public/private balances in this sense?

An interesting aspect is the use that large private companies have made or can make of ideas and inputs coming from online communities, which they can take up, engineer, and resell. A particular case is that of open software, which is made available in an open manner and whose codes are available and modifiable with the constraint that they must be re-offered to the public always in an open manner. There is always the risk that this does not happen, even if the availability of open tools is now increasingly widespread. There is also a theme of economic sustainability. While those working in the public sector may succeed in embracing this model, it can be more difficult for small companies that find it hard to use completely open strategies unless they are fully integrated into a European design flow that requires this approach to be adopted.
On the other hand, this approach is truly changing the world of research, favoring a much wider circulation of tools and ideas.

Edited by Monia Torre

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