Artificial intelligence, ethics alongside technology
A book by a computer scientist and a philosopher helps us understand new technologies
Understanding in order to act better and wiser. This applies to everyone, but particularly to certain categories of social and economic actors. In other words, to have the right tools to understand, and then to act more carefully. This must also be done with the new technologies available, including artificial intelligence, perhaps one of the most important, interesting and promising. Provided, that is, that you understand it well.
To help this understanding, a useful read is “Per un’ecologia dell’intelligenza artificiale. Dialoghi tra un filosofo e un informatico” (Towards an ecology of artificial intelligence. Dialogues between a philosopher and a computer scientist) written by Vincenzo Ambriola (already Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Pisa) and Adriano Fabris (Professor of Moral Philosophy, also at the University of Pisa). The two authors, who come from different backgrounds and experiences, have one thing in common: the ethical focus of technology. The book is a dialogue between the two, based on an observation: the advent of artificial intelligence is redefining the boundaries of the human, inexorably intertwining technology and consciousness. The two then try to answer a series of important questions for everyone, which can be summed up as one big question. How will artificial intelligence change the way we work, relate to each other and understand ourselves? In fact, what is affected by our relationship with technologies is the very idea of the human being that artificial intelligence introduces.
The two academics discuss this historic revolution with their different lenses through which they observe reality and technology. And therein lies the interest of the book (not even 100 pages to read carefully). While the computer scientist guides the reader through the meanderings of the algorithm, revealing the potential and the limits of this new intelligence, the philosopher invites us to reflect on the moral implications of this transformation. One vision of reality does not exclude the other and, on the contrary, it enriches it.
The book is structured in three steps (with as many chapters). The first discusses the ethics of artificial intelligence “in socio-technological systems”, and then goes into detail about what ethics we are talking about, what codes are being discussed, and what the actual novelty of “new technologies” is. The second chapter then reflects on language and the “worlds created by artificial entities” and tries to understand the function, utility and responsibility that these worlds imply. An example of a “conversation with an artificial entity” is also included in this part. The third step concerns the “ecology of digital environments” and relates to the places and spaces of these environments, attempting to define a new way of doing ecology.
Each chapter is based on texts written by the two, and on others written alternately by either the computer scientist or the philosopher.
In their conclusions, the two authors highlight the importance of ethics today, not only for humans but also for machines, and the extent to which the latter’s design criteria “must be inspired by principles such as transparency, accountability, respect for predefined and inviolable rules. The accountability mechanisms governing the operation of these systems must be clarified, separating the training phase from the operational phase”. However, the book – and this is another of its merits – does not provide an answer to all the questions that remain unanswered; on the contrary, it concludes by stressing how complex and difficult it is to achieve a balance in the use of new technologies.
Per un’ecologia dell’intelligenza artificiale. Dialoghi tra un filosofo e un informatico
Vincenzo Ambriola, Adriano Fabris
Castelvecchi, 2025
A book by a computer scientist and a philosopher helps us understand new technologies
Understanding in order to act better and wiser. This applies to everyone, but particularly to certain categories of social and economic actors. In other words, to have the right tools to understand, and then to act more carefully. This must also be done with the new technologies available, including artificial intelligence, perhaps one of the most important, interesting and promising. Provided, that is, that you understand it well.
To help this understanding, a useful read is “Per un’ecologia dell’intelligenza artificiale. Dialoghi tra un filosofo e un informatico” (Towards an ecology of artificial intelligence. Dialogues between a philosopher and a computer scientist) written by Vincenzo Ambriola (already Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Pisa) and Adriano Fabris (Professor of Moral Philosophy, also at the University of Pisa). The two authors, who come from different backgrounds and experiences, have one thing in common: the ethical focus of technology. The book is a dialogue between the two, based on an observation: the advent of artificial intelligence is redefining the boundaries of the human, inexorably intertwining technology and consciousness. The two then try to answer a series of important questions for everyone, which can be summed up as one big question. How will artificial intelligence change the way we work, relate to each other and understand ourselves? In fact, what is affected by our relationship with technologies is the very idea of the human being that artificial intelligence introduces.
The two academics discuss this historic revolution with their different lenses through which they observe reality and technology. And therein lies the interest of the book (not even 100 pages to read carefully). While the computer scientist guides the reader through the meanderings of the algorithm, revealing the potential and the limits of this new intelligence, the philosopher invites us to reflect on the moral implications of this transformation. One vision of reality does not exclude the other and, on the contrary, it enriches it.
The book is structured in three steps (with as many chapters). The first discusses the ethics of artificial intelligence “in socio-technological systems”, and then goes into detail about what ethics we are talking about, what codes are being discussed, and what the actual novelty of “new technologies” is. The second chapter then reflects on language and the “worlds created by artificial entities” and tries to understand the function, utility and responsibility that these worlds imply. An example of a “conversation with an artificial entity” is also included in this part. The third step concerns the “ecology of digital environments” and relates to the places and spaces of these environments, attempting to define a new way of doing ecology.
Each chapter is based on texts written by the two, and on others written alternately by either the computer scientist or the philosopher.
In their conclusions, the two authors highlight the importance of ethics today, not only for humans but also for machines, and the extent to which the latter’s design criteria “must be inspired by principles such as transparency, accountability, respect for predefined and inviolable rules. The accountability mechanisms governing the operation of these systems must be clarified, separating the training phase from the operational phase”. However, the book – and this is another of its merits – does not provide an answer to all the questions that remain unanswered; on the contrary, it concludes by stressing how complex and difficult it is to achieve a balance in the use of new technologies.
Per un’ecologia dell’intelligenza artificiale. Dialoghi tra un filosofo e un informatico
Vincenzo Ambriola, Adriano Fabris
Castelvecchi, 2025