Internet torn apart: between potential and risks

An article by Francesco Berlucchi

"The other day, just for fun, my son asked artificial intelligence to write two articles on the euro, one in Prodi's style and one in Tremonti's style. Two perfect articles came out, better than what I would have written: for Tremonti, I don't know...». It is the former President of the Council and of the European Commission Romano Prodi, alumnus of the university, who makes the packed Crypt of the Aula Magna of Università Cattolica smile with this example. A non-trivial way to explain the potential of artificial intelligence, which he defines as "a total change in society". And the risks: "The problem is that for now he is in the undemocratic command." The occasion is the presentation of the book by Vittorio Bertola and Stefano Quintarelli, Internet made to pieces, promoted by the Humane Technology Lab, the laboratory of the Catholic University created to investigate the relationship between human experience and technology and directed by Giuseppe Riva. The subtitle, Digital Sovereignty, Nationalisms and Big Tech, anticipates much of what the reader will find in the 144 pages of the volume published by Bollati Boringhieri. "The reason why we wanted to make this book is to point out that direction must be understood, meditated on and, if possible, controlled," explains Vittorio Bertola. "These companies are now comparable in size or even larger than those in the Member States. So they are also a political power, they heavily influence the decisions that are made in Brussels and around the world. And they tend, in some ways, to replace the state. Are we sure that this is the model we want to achieve?"

The reasoning, adds Stefano Quintarelli, does not only apply to Google, Meta, Alphabet and the other giants. "In the last twenty years, our material dimension of the world has been enriched by an immaterial dimension that has become the main user interface," says Quintarelli. "If you buy a tractor today, you're buying two things: atoms, what's changed in a physical location, and a license to use the software. The latter is a contract between you and the supplier that sets limits on you, otherwise the software that runs the tractor will be suspended. A small slice of its value goes to Italy, but most of the value of the tractor is the intangible dimension: whatever software contains, it always includes a part that we actually buy and a part, under license for use, that decides the rules of the game."

"This volume could be used as a textbook for children," comments Mariangela Pira, a Sky journalist and alumna of Università Cattolica. "Considering the large technology companies present in Italy, in 2020 their profit was between 3.8 and 4.4 billion euros. Against this, the taxes paid amounted to about 70 million. We prepared a report on Sky TG24 and, by cross-referencing data from the Ministry of Finance, we discovered that a big tech company was paying the same taxes as a hotel in the Province of Savona." "Society must defend itself and set rules," says Prodi, who reiterates: "A revolution is underway, with aspects that are not predictable." The authors therefore hypothesize future scenarios and possible solutions, in the pages of the book as well as among the granite columns of the Crypt, stimulated by the many questions of the students. "Our action as active individual citizens is also fundamental," they reply. "It's not easy to live without Google, for example, but it's important to use it consciously."