Ethic AI 4 Care
hero

University of Macerata

A vision rooted in the traditions of humanism, a cohesive and inclusive community, cutting-edge approaches to research, broad and varied teaching programmes, a strongly international focus: these are the defining features of the University of Macerata (UniMc).

Founded in 1290 and one of the oldest universities in the world, UniMc is an educational hub focused on Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities (SSH). Human sciences (philosophy, cultural heritage, history and archaeology, ancient and modern languages, literature, pedagogy), and social sciences (political science, communication science, tourism, law and economics) are intended by UniMC as the driving force for innovation.

The push towards creativity and innovation inspires UniMC commitment to the advancement of knowledge, to basic and applied research aimed at developing people and society. Working within local, national, and international contexts, UniMc twin poles are interdisciplinarity and excellence.

UniMC roots lie in humanism, innovation is its commitment to the future.

The University of Macerata (UniMc) has a remarkable expertise managing and coordinating EU projects, especially interdisciplinary and intersectoral EU projects integrating STEM and SSH, such as POREEN (318908), CHETCH (612589), ALICE (734560), GRAGE (645706), ALHTOUR (692311). The Department of Political Sciences, Communication and International Relations is an interdisciplinary environment with key expertise in digitalisation processes and AI through the integration of SSH and STEM. It is currently running more than 30 projects in different areas of AI, with a strong emphasis on AI for health and on the ethical and legal dimension of AI and its policy implications. It hosts the Jean Monnet Chair Ethics for inclusive digital Europe, offers a post-graduate course on the ethics, law, and policy of AI, as well as several BA and MA courses on digital media and AI for the public and private sector. It has strong expertise in the ethical and legal assessment of AI systems.

The Department of Political Sciences, Communication and International Relations is an interdisciplinary environment with key expertise in digitalisation processes and AI through the integration of SSH and STEM. It is currently running more than 30 projects in different areas of AI, with a strong emphasis on AI for health and on the ethical and legal dimension of AI and its policy implications.

It hosts the Jean Monnet Chair Ethics for inclusive digital Europe, offers a post-graduate course on the ethics, law, and policy of AI, as well as several BA and MA courses on digital media and AI for the public and private sector. It has strong expertise in the ethical and legal assessment of AI systems.

Key Individuals

Prof. Benedetta Giovanola (female, project PI), full professor of Ethics and Jean Monnet Chair holder in “Ethics for inclusive digital Europe”. Regular visiting professor at Tufts University, US. Vice-president of the Italian Association of Moral Philosophy. She is internationally renowned for AI ethics and ethics of e-health, as well as of the integration of EU values in digital technologies. On these topics she serves as an ethics advisor and coordinates a number of projects, including as PI@UNIMC the EU funded project REINITIALISE – pREservIng fuNdamental rIghTs In the use of digitAl technoLogIes for e-health ServicEs (GA 952357, H2020-WIDESPREAD-2018-2020), aimed at integrating EU fundamental rights and ethical principles in the design and use of digital technologies in the sector of e-health; the research project ESAI- Ethics and Sustainable AI, funded by the Italian Ministry of Research (under the PNRR actions). She is the Director of the postgraduate course on "Ethics, Law, and Digital Technologies" and member of the executive board of the post-graduate course on "Cybersecurity, Cyber Risk and Data Protection". She is the Director of the Lab on Cybersecurity at the CINIInteruniversity National Consortium for Informatics, being the only ethicist to lead these kinds of Labs. She has more than 200 talks in leading institutions mainly in Europe, US, Canada and China and has published 7 books, 150+ articles, and founded GAIA, a spin-off for ethical and legal assessments of AI systems.

Prof. Emanuele Frontoni (male), full Professor of computer science and Co-Director of the VRAI Vision Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Lab. Affiliated Researcher at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa, Italy (https://inbot.iit.it/). Since 2022, Scientific Director of the Center for Scientific Research and Technological Innovation in the Neurological Field, NemoLab, at Niguarda Hospital in Milan, Italy (https://nemolab.it/). Author of over 300 international articles. Since 2021, included in the annual "World's Top 2% Scientists" list curated by Stanford University and Elsevier.

Prof. Simone Calzolaio (male) (UNIMC), associate prof. of Constitutional Law. Specialized in data governance, data protection law, and legal aspects of artificial intelligence, particularly AI systems for health. Published 80+ works.

Dr Simona Tiribelli (female), PhD, assistant professor in ethics at UNIMC, author of 20+ articles and 2 books on AI ethics. She participated in more than 40 conferences in Europe, Canada, and US (Harvard University, Tufts University, MIT Media Lab). She was also a 2023 Visiting scholar at New York University and 2020 Fulbright Scholar at the MIT Media Lab. She is Director for AI ethics at the Institute for Technology & Global Health (USA).

Giuliana Carassai (female) Project manager with 10+ years of experience in EU and International funding programmes and procedures. Key expertise in project management, financing, reporting.