Dal papiro all’algoritmo. Lingue antiche e Intelligenza Artificiale: il futuro nasce dal passato

At the Campus of the University of Palermo, the initiative “Dal papiro all’algoritmo. Lingue antiche e Intelligenza Artificiale: il futuro nasce dal passato”, took place over two days, involving high school students from Palermo in a series of hands-on workshops exploring the intersection between the humanities and digital technologies.

Over the course of the two days, hosted by the Department of Culture and Society and the Department of Humanities, ITSERR researchers led participants through workshops that, by using software developed within the project, enabled them to explore manuscripts, archives, sacred texts and applications of Artificial Intelligence, ranging from the Corpus Iuris Canonici in electronic form to challenges related to deep fakes, from papal registers preserved in the Vatican Apostolic Archive to “verse hunts” across ancient languages and digital platforms.

The initiative brought together students from the National Boarding School “Giovanni Falcone”, the “Benedetto Croce” Science High School, the “Umberto I” Classical High School and the “Giuseppe Garibaldi” Classical High School, accompanied by a group of ITSERR researchers including Vincenzo Roberto Imperia, Ivana Panzeca, Domenico Ciccarello, Marco Papasidero, Marco Zanella, Ilaria Sabbatini, Andrea Ravasco, Igor Spanò, Sara Abram, Fabio Tutrone and Marcello Costa.

The initiative clearly showed how artificial intelligence can support the humanities in the study of texts and traditions, not by replacing but by enhancing critical and interpretative perspectives. The dialogue with schools confirmed the central role of collaboration between universities, research and younger generations in building an informed and responsible digital culture.