Dialogue, awareness and shared development. These are the key words of the Sud Innovation Summit – AI for Future 2025, scheduled today and tomorrow at the Polo Papardo campus of the University of Messina. The event transforms the university center into a true “global village” of innovation, a widespread ecosystem where ideas can be sown and projects cultivated, in the name of artificial intelligence and sustainable growth.
Roberto Ruggeri, creator and organizer of the event, opened the proceedings in the main hall of the campus and invited a reflection on the role of AI in contemporary society. “We are not here to celebrate technology – underlined Ruggeri – but to understand how to govern it. Artificial intelligence is not neutral, it is a mirror. If we choose convenience, we will build systems that make us passive; if we choose curiosity and doubt, we will build systems that make us capable. The South can be a laboratory of balance between speed and awareness, a Mediterranean model of human, ethical and competitive.”
A vision also shared by the Minister for Civil Protection and Maritime Policies, Nello Musumeci, who emphasized the value of innovation as a driver of competitiveness. “Competition is won with innovation, with digitalisation and with the ability to stay on the market – said Musumeci -. But the raw material is needed: the man, the competence, the human resource. And we need to preserve the specificity of the South, which becomes attractive thanks to its traditions, culture, identity processes and the charm of the territory”.
Also present was the mayor of Messina, Federico Basile, who highlighted the role of the university as an engine of development and research. “Today, artificial intelligence touches every sector: from medicine to civil protection up to the domestic sphere. The university is a hotbed of study and talent, and the Municipality provides physical spaces and concrete opportunities to make this ecosystem grow”, declared Basile, also recalling the recent meetings with large companies such as IBM and Microsoft. “Our city must aim to retain young people and bring back Messina residents who want to invest here”.
The South Innovation Summit – AI for Future 2025 will continue with talks, workshops and meetings dedicated to the future of artificial intelligence, digital ethics, entrepreneurship and development opportunities for the South, which is increasingly a candidate to become a point of reference in the national innovation panorama.