Gianluigi Greco is an academic with an international profile, considered among the most authoritative scholars in the world in the field of Artificial Intelligence. At the helm of the largest Calabrian university from 1 November 2025, Prof. Greco has given a clear and recognizable direction to his rectorate from the beginning, basing it on three key words with a strong transformative value: innovation, inclusion and public responsibility of the University. A vision that is not limited to academic governance, but questions in depth the role of the university in contemporary society. The University that Greco is building is conceived as a democratic infrastructure of knowledge, in which scientific education and humanistic studies dialogue in an organic and unitary way, as has rarely happened in the past, on the great issues of our time. With Greco we discussed his idea of university and the role that the academic institution is called to play in Calabria between knowledge, responsibility and the future.
Rector Greco, what role do you attribute to the public university today in strengthening democratic citizenship and a sense of collective responsibility?
«The public university is a bulwark in defense of democracy. In an era in which slogans and the speed of digital information fragment thought, the University carries on its shoulders the burden of training young people in critical reasoning: teaching them to decipher the complexity of the present, to separate the facts from the background noise, to recognize and resist the drifts of demagogy. But the impact of the university goes much further: in giving substance to the constitutional principle that the Republic wants to remove economic and social obstacles, it is the social elevator without which the country risks crystallizing its inequalities. By breaking down economic barriers and guaranteeing access to knowledge for all, the university enhances individual merit and, at the same time, cultivates a sense of collective belonging. Our students learn to recognize in institutions not a distant entity, but a space that belongs to them and for which they are responsible: it is from this awareness that authentic citizenship is born. Giving up this mission would not only mean cultural impoverishment, but the failure of that pact of trust between the Republic and citizens on which our coexistence is based.
How can academic knowledge contribute to the construction and consolidation of a culture of legality in Calabrian society?
«The university is the place where legality in Calabria ceases to be an abstraction to become daily practice through the power of knowledge. Our task is, on the one hand, to provide a critical reading of the territory: analyzing criminal phenomena means demystifying them, weakening social consensus and contrasting the culture of the “shortcut” with that of law. At the same time, the university contributes to consolidating the culture of legality in a perhaps more indirect, but even more widespread way: by honoring its educational mission. Educating citizens and professionals who put moral rigor and ethics before personal interest means regenerating the social fabric from within. But it is perhaps by creating development and innovative work opportunities that academic knowledge exercises its most concrete function: offering young people alternatives and virtuous models, demonstrating that knowledge is the most powerful tool for redeeming one’s dignity and the future of one’s land.”
How can the university contribute to governing the use of artificial intelligence so that it is compatible with the values of democracy and rights?
«Research has the responsibility of guiding technological innovation, placing the well-being of the person as an insurmountable limit. In concrete terms, this means training professionals who are not only technically excellent, but capable of subjecting innovation to the rigorous scrutiny of ethics and law; promote courageously interdisciplinary research, in which different knowledge interacts to anticipate the social impact of new technologies; educate towards a digital awareness that will become increasingly decisive. Understanding and governing artificial intelligence means training citizens capable of recognizing algorithmic biases and defending themselves from the manipulation of consensus. Our commitment is to ensure that technology remains an engine of emancipation and does not become a tool of control.”
What idea of development does Calabria need today: economic, social, educational?
«In our region it is unthinkable to talk about development in watertight compartments: we need an integrated vision in which economic growth, social stability and education feed each other. There is no lasting economic progress without a radical investment in human capital, just as there can be no social stability without the dignity that comes from work and innovation. In this scenario, UniCal promotes the idea of a knowledge ecosystem, which aims to transform a historically transit land into a hub capable of attracting and retaining talent. We must structure an economy that enhances our roots by opening them to global technological frontiers, on which our scientific credibility is now consolidated. Our commitment is to become the driving force of this process, to offer excellent training courses and cutting-edge skills, to cultivate in our young people the entrepreneurial culture and the impetus necessary to write the future of our land”.
What message can the University give to young Calabrians who want to stay or return?
«The message is clear: young people are not alone in their growth journey and their legitimate desire to stay is not an act of resignation, but a far-sighted choice. The University of Calabria is here to tell the new generations that staying means claiming the right to be protagonists of a change that can no longer be expected from the outside. To those who want to return, we say that Calabria is growing on the national scene and that in UniCal we already contribute to defining the frontiers of research and innovation. We have built a context where talent finds excellence and international connections. UniCal does not just offer training courses, but an alliance with the territory: we put our scientific credibility at the service of society and our young people, so that skills become the seed of a competitive economy. Investing in Calabria today means building a ruling class that will challenge prejudices; this land is an open-air laboratory where the future is built, and which needs the gaze of young people to take shape.”
If you had to define the University of the next ten years in one sentence, which image would you choose?
«The image that best defines us is carved into the architecture of our Campus itself: a large bridge within which we study, research and live, and which physically unites departments and knowledge. It is the emblem of a university suspended between roots and future, anchored to the constitutional values and identity of the territory, but reaching out towards the most advanced frontiers of knowledge. It is this link between belonging and openness that allows each student to navigate the complexity of the present with courage and ambition.”