Mission Statement
The 70-year endeavour to build machines that can think, talk, and work alongside us drew me to technology in the first place. Today, my goal is to ensure AI benefits humans, not the other way around.
Biography
I’ve always been interested in human-computer interactions and how we can leverage technology and information for the benefit of all.
I started writing software when I was fourteen, and haven’t stopped since. In the meantime, I studied philosophy, focusing mainly on logic, language, and symbolic AI.
After a twenty-year career as CTO and Head of Development in tech and healthcare sectors, I joined Thoughtworks in 2017, where I have been helping and advising companies across Europe to understand their legacy software and extract value from their data.
On a parallel track, I have been collaborating with the Design School at the Politecnico di Milano since 2019. For the past five years, I have been an adjunct professor on the Design School’s international master’s programme in PSSD (product-system-service design), investigating the intersection between technology, AI, and Design. In 2022, I was appointed to the Design School’s advisory board, and, in 2024, I joined the Artificial Intelligence Observatory as an external expert.
Questionnaire
Where do you want to foster change and why?
AI now offers us the opportunity to completely rethink the way we model interactions between humans and machines: it’s time to step outside our comfort zone and start experimenting again!
What or who influenced you during your professional career?
V. Bush’s 1945 essay “As we may think”. A. Turing’s 1940 paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”. T. Nelson’s 1981 book “Literary Machines”. G. Bateson’s 1972 book “Steps to an Ecology of Mind”.
We all have those significant moments or situations (success or failure); which one was yours, and what did you learn from it?
“Nana korobi ya oki” (Fall seven times, stand up eight) is an ancient Japanese proverb that has had a profound influence on both my life and my professional career. No matter how intense the pressure, no matter how severe the failure, there is always a way to bounce back. Or, as we like to joke in the software industry, “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!”