Home Forums Silicon Valley Study Tour – August 2019 Bicocca Silicon Valley 2019

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140 replies, 13 voices Last updated by Serena 4 years, 10 months ago
  • Marco Pastore
    Participant
    @marcopastore
    #3133

    Hello everyone!

    I am Marco Pastore and I will be the moderator of this forum so I will walk you guys through the selection process of SVST 2019 . The first thing I feel like I should tell you about the Silicon Valley Study Tour is that it really is the experience you’re looking for, it’s been the best I had so far in my entire life and I hope it’ll be your best one too.

    Just a little bit about myself, I am 22 years old and I am attending the first year of the master degree in Statistics & Economic sciences here in Bicocca. I am really passionate about innovation & technology and in the way this pair shape our society and generate economic development.

    The selections for the 2019 participants as you know, will be based on your activity on this forum so be creativedeeply analyze the topics and interact with one another.
    I really hope to see you all in the cradle of innovation this summer in order to get to know each other better, but for now let’s get started!

    I’d like to begin with a really HOT TOPIC of the last few weeks: Il CEO di Google, Sundar Pichai: “Intelligenza Artificiale, le preoccupazioni sono fondate” 
    What do you think about it? Will AI shape our society? Should governments be more aware about AI? Deeply analyze the story as a whole and tell us what are your personal thoughts and opinions about it, but don’t forget to first introduce yourself if you haven’t already.

    N.B. This forum will close on March 25th, then our staff will create an eligibility ranking (the number of students that will be selected is still tbd). We still don’t know if University Milano-Bicocca will be able to provide financial support for you to participate in the program. More to come!

    I look forward to read your opinions and discuss with you on really stimulating topics.

    Marco Pastore

    Francesca Tomasello
    Participant
    @francescatomasello
    #3137

    Hi everybody!

    My name is Francesca Tomasello and I am 23 years old. I am a student of the Master’s Degree of Scienze economico aziendali at the University of Milano Bicocca, of course! This is my last year of university life because I hope to graduate at the end of the 2019. At the beginning of this school year I’ve started working at KPMG as Auditor Intern. This experience is helping me to enter in the working life gradually before graduating and also it is a way to understand if this could be my ideal job or not. In my spare time I have a lot of interests that I try to develop (but not always it’s so easy to match so many things together) for instance reading (but, how about reading a book, maybe very exciting, after 8 hours of work or university lessons?!) and doing sports. In addition I would like to share with you my affection to the themes of sustainability, ecology and nature in general. I hope that we will discuss these topics which are, in my opinion, actually linked to technology and innovations!

    Thank you @marcopastore for starting this debate with this hot topic! Sundar Pichai admits in front of the world that “fears about artificial intelligence are ‘very legitimate“. And if a personality like him tells us this, maybe we really have to shake… I firmly believe that AI is going to help us in various field, as he said: healthcare, transports and so on, but in the other hand we should understand when and where to stop in order to make way to ourselves, we the human beings! If this unstoppable process was not controlled, AI would overcome humanity. By saying that I mean that humanity has a powerful intelligence but there is the risk of losing control over these innovations. Connected to this issue, not specifically with the AI but with the digital transformation in general, I would like to share with you a very interesting TED’s speech by Douglas Rushkoff “How to be “Team Human” in the digital future” that should give us pause for thought. It is a monologue where you understand that we could retrieve the values that we are in danger of leaving behind and then adding them in the digital infrastructure for the future. There is a space for both Humanity and Technology! Here’s the link: https://www.ted.com/talks/douglas_rushkoff_how_to_be_team_human_in_the_digital_future

    Governments have the authority to legislate on this topic, in fact the EU is on the path towards creating an Ethic Guideline. In June was created the High-level expert group on Artificial Intelligence by the European Commission that produced the first draft of the Ethic Guidelines. By the end of January 2019 all european citizens can interact here in this forum (https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/european-ai-alliance) in order to add comments or other ideas regarding the Ethic Guidelines. So, the final Ethic Guidelines will be ready at the latest, on March. With pride I want to mention the Italian woman Francesca Rossi, an IBM researcher, who is part of the group that I was talking about above. She is confident about the transformation that will affect us due to AI, during an interview she said: “it will be a challenge, but in the long run this will allow us to make our lives better”. Here is the complete interview: https://www.repubblica.it/tecnologia/sicurezza/2018/06/15/news/intelligenza_artificiale_nasce_la_task_force_ue_eviteremo_una_societa_piu_ingiusta_-199110377/

    To conclude, I repeat that in my opinion we should pay attention to this challenges, we need to be<span style=”text-decoration: underline;”> owners</span> of technology and not <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>slaves</span> of technology!

    And what about if I told you that you could talk and share feeling with a robot instead of a real person? What do think about it?

    There is a Japanese start up, GROOVE X, that has a vision: “build trust between humanity and robots, to create companions for more enriched and secure living.” They are creating a robot (LOVOT) that can give you love and affection as a real person. Here is the presentation video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=HxuriKTyenQ

    Have a nice day,

    Francesca Tomasello

    Davide
    Participant
    @davidetoniolo
    #3138

    ABOUT ME
    Hello everyone!
    I am Davide Toniolo, a postgrad Bicocca student. The last October I graduated in Physics and I’m currently continuing my studies in the same field with the Master Degree. My attention is captured by anything I perceive to be creative and innovative, with a long time passion for science, technology and art.

    My interest for Start Ups and innovation is to be found in a constant need for novelty, ideas and mission in my personality. The chance of working hard to develop something new, unique and beautiful, while making acquaintances with people with the most diverse backgrounds is what I’m looking for.

    Last Wednesday I attended  the presentation of the SVST and I was blown away by Paolo, Emilio and Antonella from a3cube and all the students who where there to share their history with the project. It was the first time I had the chance to meet and listen to a room full of peers with my same mentality. I seriously hope that my working life will be full of people such as those, and I’m looking forward to the SVST to meet new people and have a chance to develop a connection with the ones I have already met.

    ABOUT THE TOPIC
    The changes that AI, both narrow and wide, will bring to our society will be in my opinion enormous and irreversibile. It will revolutionize the job market and could represent a great problem in both the military and surveillance sectors by giving to much power to governments, surveillance agencies, military corps and weapons, and/or having access to weapons and sensible data in the case should AI become autonomous.

    At the same time, the possible benefits are huge, and are beginning to be visible in the health, data analysis, prediction and self driving sectors, to name the first few of which I’ve read news about.

    Considering all of this preamble, the letter written by Google employees that made the company take the decision to not proceed further with the military AI project and the birth of a EU council-level of awareness make me positive about the future of mankind and AI. In the past few months my position was different: I felt that there was a lack of discussion about the danger that Artificial Intelligence could bring if applied in the military and surveillance sectors, while during the same period the warnings from experts and global-level minds (like Stephen Hawkins’s) were apparently ignored.

    If the minds working in AI development, or in nearby sector, are the first to rise their voices, worry about misuses and dangers, and help bring consciousness to the rulers and policy makers, I’m positive: it means that there’s a layer of protection at the most fundamental level -the developer’s one- and that companies have thresholds that they are not willing to surpass in order to make business.

    Also, EU’s engagement has surprised me. I thought that the average politician’s background, so far from technology, would cause rulers to focus their attention on the issue when it would be already fully developed, mature, and too big to regulate effectively. Luckily, I was wrong and I think we, as EU citizens, should monitor carefully what concrete actions will come out from EU inner mechanisms.

    Just my two cents and looking forward to hear your thoughts,
    Davide

    Daniela Fiorellino
    Participant
    @danielafiorellino
    #3145

    Hello everybody!!

    My name is Daniela Fiorellino, I am 24 and I am from Grosseto, Tuscany. I graduated in “Economia e Commercio” at University of Siena and now I am currently living in Milan where I am attending the Master Degree in Marketing e Mercati Globali at Bicocca University. This is my last year of study and I honestly can’t wait to discover what will be the next chapter of my life. I am a really positive person, I like discovering things that are new to me because I am very curious and I think I have a creative mind: whenever there is something I can’t do I like to find another way to do it anyway.

    I have to be honest: the first thing that came in to my mind when I read the topic was the movie “I, robot” with Will Smith, have you seen it? Although I saw that movie more than 10 years ago, I remembered it pretty well because it was something that at the time was so distant to imagine for me, almost completely science fiction. If you don’t know what the movie is about, basically it is based in our world in 2035 where AI and robot are part of the society and they are created to serve humanity, but something goes wrong and it begins a revolution. (spoiler alert!) There are 3 important  rules for robots that are called “Asimov’s Three laws of Robotics” : the interesting part is that they are actually helpful outside the movie and they could be really applied to reality. I found this interesting article that explain how to apply these laws in our world and the consequence of the IA in our society. https://www.agendadigitale.eu/cultura-digitale/intelligenza-artificiale-lutilita-attuale-delle-leggi-di-asimov/

    I think AI will have a big influences in our society, but the real question is: would it be a good or a bad influence? I agree with Sundar Pichai when he says that the benefits will outweigh the risks, but in a long term. I think it is a process that must not be underestimated: we have to be extremely careful in what we create and we have to consider all aspect, bad and good; for this reason I think that more rules given by Government and experts are necessary, because yes AI will make our life easier, companies will benefit from maximization of productivity for example, there will be great improvement in field like medicine and all of this is important because it is the natural course of evolution, it is what we expect, but it is also easy that we create something that will be used for things that are no good to society. As the article say AI could be used to commit crimes or it could be dangerous when it is used by military or by powerful people with different purposes than the welfare of society.

    So, yes, it is an interesting topic, there is so much to talk about, so many aspect that we should consider and the more I write, the more I can think about different scenarios.          I want to leave you with this reflection: what do you think is the impact of AI on human beings? Right now we are exploring AI in a small way in our everyday, think about “Alexa” or “Google Assistant” , but try to think about it in a bigger way: will future AI make us lazy and dependent on that? Will it replace humans, for example talking about jobs: why companies should hire people when there are machine that can do the job even better, with minimal efforts and without being paid? Do you think it is something that we should worry about? I would like to know what you think about it.

    Thank you Francesca and Davide for your opinions and for the articles and video you posted here, they are really interesting.

    Happy holidays,

    Daniela Fiorellino.

    Francesca Tomasello
    Participant
    @francescatomasello
    #3146

    Hello guys!

    Nice to meet you (virtually) too Davide and Daniela!

    Reading your comments about the AI, I notice that <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>we all agree</span> on the fact that AI will change irreversible our lives and that is a process that will bring good things but also bad things if not ruled properly. It’s a process that have to be regulated by the Governaments, that have the power and the legitimation to legislate on this topic. As @davidetoniolo said, suprisingly EU politicians are doing well, thanks to the group of researcher specialized on AI (as I wrote in my first post).

    Thanks  @danielafiorellino, I thought I had forgotten Will Smith’s movie, but you reminded me of the story, and the article that you shared is very interesting. Another movie connected to the theme of AI and a little old one (1999) is Bicentennial Man: I remember that I was almost crying when I saw it for the first time, it was very emotional! I admit that in the last years I have not seen anymore movies about this topic, and you? Matching real life and movies is always a stimulating way to discuss!

    The impact of AI on humans, as I said in the previous post, could be dramatic if not controlled. We are maybe losing our personal sense of human beings (how could we accept to share emotions and feelings with a robot instead of that a person?!) but if we change perspective and we think of all the benefits that AI is bringing to us, we have to balance all the pros and the cons.

    Switching the attention on the Industry, I call out Industry 4.0, the revolution that we are experimenting on our lives (we could talk and write for ours of this). I firmly believe that (I always repeat the concept of controlling properly this process, sorry if I’m boring 🙂 ) it will changes the way we do certain jobs and it will transform some jobs into another forms of jobs, so we need to be ready to adapt to this disruptive challenges that are affecting all the world we live in. So, in conclusion, we need to be protagonists  all-rounded of our lives, being open minded!

    and last but not least…

    (This image is really ON topic, don’t you think?)

    Francesca 

    Paolo Marenco
    Participant
    @paolomarenco
    #3152

    Hy guys , I give you a project to  comment on its page.

    Michele Cipollone  Genoa guy studying in UAL  ( University of Arts of London) that presented himself in Bicocca event, selected to attend the SVST August 2019, launched this project with a team,  selected among the best 30 by the European Commission.

    According to the quality of the comments they  will receive from the net within January 20, 2019, Michele will have the possibility to be selected as the first 5 projects that will attend to an Event in Brussels with top people of European Parliament.

    Big challenge for Michele! You can comment the project straight on its presentation, putting the comment also here!

    have nice Holidays!

    Davide
    Participant
    @davidetoniolo
    #3206

    @paolomarenco Wow! This is the second time in the span of a few weeks that EU surprises me. I had never heard of EU’s Policy Lab before, its many projects are really interesting. I will look in detail all the proposals and then start commenting in Michele’s project: the idea of simulating different societies is amazing.

    Happy Holidays to everyone,
    Davide Toniolo

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 3 months ago by Davide.
    Davide
    Participant
    @davidetoniolo
    #3228

    It troubles me seeing how many comments has the “The Consumption Show” project. To see it looks like the scenario described there is already a dystrophic EU. I can allow for varying public services prices based on the individual’s environmental impact, but completely blocking access to public services in case of anti environmental behavior looks is extreme. Thankfully someone in the comments already pointed out the problem.

    I really hope that the number of comments isn’t the only metric by which successful project will be selected: it is too influenced by how many friends, relatives and contacts the project makers can harvest to their help. Michele’s project is in the top three of the most innovative for sure and I really hope that it gets picked. For the current phase I believe that they hare in a good position, as half of the projects in there are not as innovative or as well thought out as his.

    Cheers,
    Davide

    Marco Pastore
    Participant
    @marcopastore
    #3242

    Hi everyone!
    I am really happy to see you here. I read your comments about AI and seems you have a broad knowledge on the  topic.
    Really nice thoughts.

    Before introducing another argument I am waiting for new candidates to join the forum. We will see next weeek!
    Happy Epiphany!

     

    Marco Pastore

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Marco Pastore.
    Marco Pastore
    Participant
    @marcopastore
    #3254

    Hi guys!

    Today I have thought about this video and I wanna make sure you see it too.
    It is literally incredible. Watch until the end of the video, then tell me your reaction.
    Machine learning is totally changing the AI approach.

     

    Marco Pastore

    Serena
    Participant
    @serenavineis
    #3256

    Hello guys!

    I am a new member!

    I’ll start presenting myself. I am 23 and I am enrolled at the last year of the Management master degree. I was informed by some friends about this beautuful opportunity and, as I like exploring new projects and adventures, I decided to get in the ring! 🙂 I have many passions but the main one is music, in fact, I write some articles for Radio Bicocca and sometimes I work at the concerts.

    I was reading your comments on the AI topic and I was really impressed and I agree with you all. Like Francesca said before, I am totally in love with the film Bicentennial man too, it describes very well what AI could be in the future. I saw few days ago the cartoon Big Hero 6 and it tells about this robot who was created like a replacement doctor. I even saw on the TG1 (unfortunately I can’t find the link) that was about a delivery robot and in complete autonomy it was walking by the city and do the deliveries..It was crazy!!

    These are only two examples of how much is powerful AI. AI is very fascinating and gives a lot of benefits, it is created to help people and improve services but at the same time I think it’s very dangerous beacuse it could affect the job market and create a big loss for the economy and for the emotions. The main key to curb the problem and to keep having benefits is the HUMAN BEING. Only the HB have the power to control and to undertsand the thin line before the point of no return.

    Other examples are the film Her that talks about a man who is falling in love with an intelligent computer; the ballet of Roberto Bolle with a mechanical arm , the concept is underlining that even a machine can feel emotions. Is this really possible?

    It seems like people are gonna lose their emotions making them acquire to the AI.


    @marcopastore
    Wow! Thanks for sharing this interesting video. It makes me think a lot about AI. Could AI really think and decide by itself?

    Hope to hear you soon,

    Serena

    Francesca Tomasello
    Participant
    @francescatomasello
    #3257

    Hi guys!

    I’ve finally commented on the EU blog for Michele Cipollone’s project. It’s really interesting and linked to the topic on this forum! I hope he could reach a good ranking between all the projects!

    Thanks @serenavineis for sharing the beautiful video of Roberto Bolle with a mechanical arm, it is an amazing union!  I am a little bit skeptical as you said that It seems like people are gonna lose their emotions in favour of AI…

    The video shared by  @marcopastore is incredible, but sincerely I’m not so expert of algorithms and how they work specifically, so I’m only impressed. What about using other games such as for example GTA or other more complex and difficult?

     

    Hope to hear from you soon,

    Francesca Tomasello

    Marco Pastore
    Participant
    @marcopastore
    #3259

    Hi everyone!

    Thank you Serena for joining the forum, and thank you for the fantastic video.


    @Francesca
    , this video show really well the machine learning approach that is becoming widely spread among AI algorithms.
    Programmers have not built precise instructions in the programme, for example: “if the ball goes toward left, then move the horizonal bar toward left too until the ball touches it” or “calculate the direction of the bar in the first 50 pixels and then move the bar toward the position calculated”.
    They simply feed the algorithm with examples with known output. They input for example 1000 matches where the player win and said to the programme “in this matches the player has won”. Then, they give to the algorithm another 1000 negative examples and tell him “in this matches the player has lost”.
    The algorithm start to analyze all the matches, and thanks to the feedback we gave him (the result of the match) he is able to simulate the strategy necessary to win and elaborate it match after match.
    Learn from data, they said.
    I find this approach really game changer.

    Regarding the job market, often I think that if the entire economy moves toward AI, from fridge to oven, from multinationals to little businesses.. well, maybe there will be (or maybe there is yet) a shortage in programmers and AI experts.
    My fear is that we will need so much this technology that we will give less importance to other particular subjects, maybe more interesting, but really low paid in a world that is dominated by automation.

    On the other hand, I believe that it is impossible to automate everything and that in a world where more and more services & products are produced by machines, human touch will become more and more important.  Do you agree?

    See you soon!!

    Marco Pastore

    Edoardo
    Participant
    @edoh
    #3276

    Hi guys, I’m 23, my name’s Edoardo Vassallo and I’m a marketing Student here in Bicocca<br>

    <br>
    I want to thanks @marcopastore for introducing me to this amazing project he attempted few years ago, it’s very exiting to think about the opportunities that this trip could give: I think that the people you can meet and talk to can really help you giving loads of great advice and constructive discussion, plus, I want to be an entrepreneur in my life so meeting some of them can be really positive.<br>

    <br>

    About the topic well, this is a very huge subject, AI could be just as useful as dangerous if not controlled in the right way</p>But the problem is: which is the right way?
    It’s pretty sure that AI can provide overwhelming progress in a lot of fields as for example medicine with more precise and less invasive surgery or maybe it could be used in a “bad” way like for war purpose<br>

    <br>
    But going back to my main question, who decide what is wrong and correct, what is good and what is bad? The humans does it and how they decide it? We’ve laws that say that but are the law always right? Personally I think is not, laws are not enough for determine it<br>

    <br>
    Speaking of war again, there’s no right and wrong, both parts think they’re right and they’ll fight for that, they’ll fight for them point of view, for what they see; I think that there’s not just one and only truth, sometimes its just a matter of perspective<br>

    <br>
    I’m saying all of this thinking about the ethical questions that could be involved in AI arguments, there’s a lot to talk about but it’ll be very wordy, so to recap my feelings about it I think that risks are necessary to look for “the good stuff” and that even if sometimes it looks very bad you gotta try to see the bigger plan, the final result and keep going<br>

    <br>
    It is scaring for sure thinking about a world where the machines revolt against humanity and some Hollywood scenarios like this one but you gotta admit that even the good parts are interesting: from the bot that cook your meals to the one who fix your heart<br>

    <br>
    Of course the develop of AI will change and shape our society like cars, phones as much as did so many other inventions, if well regulated it could bring so much value to everyones life<br>

    The governments should not only be more aware of AI but also filled with people who truly understand the topic and can bring solid and well shaped contribution to get the best out of it<br>

    <br>
    In conclusion I’m confident that AI will bring a lot of positiveness in our life and I agree with Pichai when he says that if the companies will be able to settle up the better rules about it it will be just an amazing future’s feature<br>

    <br>
    Good luck guys and have a nice day

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Edoardo.
    Daniela Fiorellino
    Participant
    @danielafiorellino
    #3280

    Hello everybody!

    Welcome to the new ones!

    I want to say something about the job market: we all agree that if/when AI become a real important thing there will be changes in every aspect of our life, but I think we should not worry about it. As we all said before, talking in a long term, everything will be ok because it is simple evolution: 30 years ago jobs like Social media manager or data Analyst or everything connected with the internet didn’t exist, nowadays they are (becoming) some of the most common. What I am trying to say is that when we go forward in time, we evolve, we discover new technology or new way to use it, society evolves: we will create new type of jobs related to the new society we will live in. That is what happened in history, it is something automatic: maybe we will not need some type of workers no more, but there will be new kind of jobs, like AI expert or specific programmers, as @Marco said. We cannot predict the future, we cannot know for sure what future’s jobs or future’s society would be like : in my opinion, in the long term everything will be as it should and I agree that human will always be indispensable, not sure for what precisely , but we will come up with something, as we always do.

    The ethical problem is something really interesting and so big to talk about: what Edoardo said about war really made me think. Until now we all said that humans have the last word regarding what is wrong or right, talking about the use of AI and what it can do. As machine, AI could make perfect decision, because it would be programmed to make the best choices in every field that it will be used. The question is: is the perfect decision always the best? Here is where ethics comes in. I will try to explain  myself with this extreme example : if the result of a problem is to kill someone because it is the best thing for business, because in this way our company will make lots of money, will we really do it? I don’t think ethic can be programmed (can it?), so AI’s solution will be to kill the person because it is the perfect result, economically speaking (the real problem is that this could be the right answer for some people too and that’s crazy). What I am trying to say with this crazy exaggerated example is that AI can be so powerful and useful, but sometimes the perfect solution is not the right one or the one we need. This is why I think human thoughts will always be needed when we talk about AI, but the reflection that I made after what Edoardo’s wrote is that sometimes even humans don’t know what is right or wrong and so how can we be sure to use AI in the best way possible? We all should be and do better, as human beings.

    I don’t know if it is clear what I am trying to say, maybe I sound so hippie right now, but I truly believe that every change begin with ourselves (as human beings), because AI could be one of the greatest innovation of our society, but we have to make sure to not messed up and be extra careful.

    Can’t wait to see what you think about it,

    Have a nice weekend,

    Daniela Fiorellino.

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