The World Briefly
May 22, 2023Welcome to the Future
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Italy will spend nearly $30 million to help people develop their digital skills amid concerns that the growing trend toward the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other technological advancements could threaten a large portion of the workforce, the Washington Post reported.
Established in 2021, the Fondo per la Repubblica Digitale (FRD) – or “Fund for the Digital Republic” – seeks to help current and future workers become more digitally literate. This is key, say officials, because more than half of Italians between the ages of 16 and 74 lack basic digital skills, compared with an average of 46 percent in the European Union overall.
The fund said it will allocate around $10 million to boosting the skills of people whose jobs are at high risk. The money will fund companies and non-profits to train their employees in using new technologies, including robotics, data science, and AI.
The remaining sum will go toward helping unemployed and economically inactive individuals improve their digital skills to become more competitive in the job market.
The FRD said the plan aims to create “experimental projects that can be scalable” and inform government policy in Italy.
Italy’s efforts came weeks after the country restored access to the AI chatbot ChatGPT. In April, Rome temporarily banned it, citing data privacy concerns.
The rapid emergence of AI technology has prompted lawmakers and regulators around the world to seek solutions on how to handle the new technology.
While analysts suggest the technology will not replace humans, many officials and academics say it could have a detrimental effect on employment.
A report by Goldman Sachs predicted that generative AI – software that generates text, images, and video based on the data it is fed – could disrupt the global economy, and estimated that 18 percent of jobs worldwide might be eliminated.
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