Science is like a pair of headlights illuminating the darkness. But the headlights alone are not enough: someone must be behind the wheel and turn them on. “It is essential to remember that they exist and that we will always need them.”

With this metaphor, Giorgio Parisi, the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics laureate, reflects on the global challenges facing humanity. During a three-day visit to Turin, he is meeting with researchers and academics at the Polytechnic University of Turin, the Academy of Sciences — which has named him a member — the University of Turin and the University of Eastern Piedmont. Tomorrow, he will receive an honorary degree.

The visit brings together several of Parisi’s central interests: the physics of complex systems, the 250th anniversary of the birth of Amedeo Avogadro, and the urgent questions shaping our future. They are also the subject of his latest essay, Our Future on a Small Planet in Need of Care, published by Castelvecchi.

Professor, can the climate crisis be compared to one of the complex systems you have studied, the work that earned you the Nobel Prize?

“Yes. That is one way of looking at it. Complex systems are often both robust and fragile. If their underlying structure is altered too much, a catastrophe can occur and they stop functioning. In nature, we have seen ecosystems that can repair themselves up to a point. But when the damage becomes too severe, they change completely. Their ability to regenerate should not give us a false sense of security: beyond a certain threshold, their compensatory mechanisms no longer work.”

You argue that reducing inequality is important in the fight against climate change. What role should scientists play?

“They can try to give people an accurate picture of the world. Too often, we see reality through the lens of institutions and authorities that offer us a convenient, sometimes ideological, version of events. Think of the slogan ‘Make America Great Again.’ The goal is to help people understand what is really happening, without being at the mercy of others.”

We already have solutions and technologies available. Why aren’t we using them?

“Science and technology have given us an enormous amount. Think of solar and wind power. The problem is deciding to use these solutions. In the United States, President Trump opposes renewable energy and favors burning coal.”

You oppose a return to nuclear power. Why?

“I know this runs counter to the prevailing debate, but renewable energy already costs four times less than nuclear power, and that gap is likely to widen further. Just look at the falling cost of batteries.”

How can artificial intelligence help us tackle the climate crisis?

“AI could help us improve solar cells, develop new batteries and engineer algae capable of converting solar energy into fuel. But there is a danger.”

What danger?

“AI could be turned into a tool of control, used to impose a single way of thinking that people can no longer question. That could happen if everyone turned to a single AI provider for news and information.

“We therefore need antitrust laws at the global level, just as Italy has done in the past in the field of information.”

You have proposed creating a European AI center. How would it help counter the dominance of Big Tech?

“It is essential to have publicly funded research dedicated to AI, both to prevent the field from being dominated entirely by private research, whose results are often opaque, and to develop open-source software, code and applications that everyone can use.”

Can you give an example?

“Training an AI system requires an extraordinary number of books and verified sources. Selecting and preparing that material is an extremely demanding and complex task. We therefore need public institutions that apply standards we can trust.”

How far along is your proposal for the AI center?

“In Italy, there is considerable interest from the government and political parties, as well as from the European Parliament and the media. The challenge now is to take concrete steps.”

You and physicist Francesco Zamponi turned to Claude and, together, solved a mathematical problem involving particle jamming in complex systems. What does this mean for research?

“The situation has changed completely. OpenAI has published proofs of 722 theorems using an internal AI model that was not made publicly available. This prompted protests from the American mathematical community. Rather than giving researchers working on these problems the opportunity to use the new algorithms, the results were published immediately, almost as a show of force. This raises the question of what the future of mathematics will look like.”

What is happening to the discipline?

“Mathematicians build their careers by solving problems, starting with the easy ones and moving on to the difficult ones. If AI solves the easy problems, how will we tackle the hard ones? If AI keeps getting better, how will humans write programs and come up with new ideas?”