Italy has adopted, with the approval of the Council of Ministers, the Strategic Programme for Artificial Intelligence (AI) 2022-2024, the result of the joint work of the Ministry of University and Research, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Minister for Technological Innovation and Digital Transition.
In line with the European Strategy, the Programme outlines twenty-four policies to be implemented over the next three years to strengthen the AI system in Italy, through the creation and enhancement of AI skills, research, development programmes and applications. These policies aim to make Italy a globally competitive centre for artificial intelligence, by strengthening research and encouraging technology transfer.
To meet these challenges, European and national sources of investment have been identified to support each policy.
Priority areas and policies
Within the initiatives dedicated to talent and skills, actions are planned to increase the number of doctorates and attract the best researchers to Italy, both in fundamental and applied research. At the same time, the programme includes policies to promote courses and careers in STEM subjects and to strengthen digital and artificial intelligence skills.
The strategic programme also includes policies to strengthen the structure of Italy’s AI research ecosystem, fostering collaborations between academia and research, industry, public bodies and society. Among other things, the aim is to create new chairs of research on AI, to promote projects to encourage the return to Italy of professionals in the sector, and to finance platforms for sharing data and software at national level.
Finally, the last area concerns policies aimed at extending the application of AI in industry and the PA. Measures in favour of businesses are aimed at supporting Transition 4.0, encouraging the birth and growth of innovative AI firms, and supporting them in testing and certifying AI products. The measures for the Public Administration are aimed at creating data infrastructures to securely exploit the potential of the big data generated by the PA, simplifying and customising the supply of public services, and innovating administrations by strengthening the GovTech ecosystem in Italy. The latter measure, for example, envisages the introduction of periodic calls for tenders to identify and support start-ups offering AI-based solutions that can solve critical public sector problems.
In order to ensure effective governance, to monitor the state of implementation of the strategy, and to coordinate all government initiatives on the subject, a permanent working group on AI has also been set up within the Interministerial Committee for Digital Transition.
The Strategic Programme is available at the following link.
