05.10.2019

Artificial (human) intelligence
Federico Faggin's vision of future

How can we maintain a concrete focus on the present while we are looking to the future? The answer comes with “FlashForward”: the event organized last September 25th by e-Novia, the Enterprise Factory to present future projects and promote a debate with guests from the world of innovation, research and business. A debate that immediately goes straight to the point: “Consciousness allows us to do what a machine cannot do: avoiding an automatic response to sensory signals,” said Federico Faggin, Physicist and Entrepreneur, famous for being the inventor of the first microprocessor and guest of honor of the event. The theme of Consciousness will be discussed often in other speeches, starting from the one on Artificial Intelligence:

«Today, for the first time, we are making machines that are able to learn. Self-learning technologies and artificial intelligence have reached a level that allows to solve important problems,” explained Faggin. The challenge therefore becomes the ability to let business and innovation coexist without losing sight of the human factor. “A mirror is enough to confuse the Google Car”, continues Faggin. “This happens because the machine has no consciousness, it is a structure based on action and reaction: it is predictable”. What problems will we face when the machines will interact even more deeply with our everyday life?

It is one of the themes on which those who work in Collaborative Mobility, Humanized Machines and Augmented Human are constantly questioned: the three main development areas of the e-Novia start-ups. In particular, Faggin argues that the greatest impact will be on what we will experience in the Collaborative Mobility and in the Automotive field. Despite a real autonomous driving is still far from coming”It will take another twenty years”), Faggin is convinced that this change in the ecosystem of transportation will profoundly revolutionize our lives.

The “FlashForward” event ends with a final panel about the “Augmented Human” topic. The guest is Zaverio Ruggeri, professor in the Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine at the Research Institute “The Scripps”, in California. Ruggeri – answering the questions from the public and the moderator – provides another, fundamental key for understanding, to be applied along with the focus on Consciousness proposed by Faggin. “In medicine,” explains Ruggeri, “drugs are not equally effective for all patients, because each patient can be similar to another, but never the same. It is necessary to be able to find a balance between human enhancement and the attention to the differences and the needs of the individual ». Diversity and consciousness – even of our own limits – are therefore two vital resources. Not only doing Research, but also during the development phases of new technologies. After all, as Faggin recalls: “We have the judgment and the ability to understand. We make decisions based on our ability to understand. We decide freely through our understanding and we also have creativity. We are creative, we have created the machine “.

(photo from youtube channel Hardware Upgrade)

Tell us your innovation story