Artificial intelligence is accelerating technological change faster than governments and industries can adapt. The race now reaches from critical minerals and electricity to semiconductors, cloud infrastructure and autonomous machines. Control over these interconnected systems increasingly determines economic strength and geopolitical influence.

That is the setting for the U.S.-Italy Dialogue on Trusted Technologies for Democracies, whose third edition brought officials, researchers, financial and business leaders together in Washington on October 16. It seeks to turn the transatlantic alliance into industrial partnerships capable of competing in this changing technological order.

Its architect and driving force is Roberto Baldoni, Founding Director of Italy's National Cybersecurity Agency, Honorary Computer Science Professor at Sapienza University of Rome and Senior Adviser on technology and cybersecurity to Italy's ambassador in Washington. His argument places Italy's often overlooked industrial technologies at the center of a larger question: how democracies can innovate together while preserving freedom of choice.

Professor Baldoni, in recent months you have brought the idea of trusted technology into Washington's policy debate, through op-eds and a white paper published by the Krach Institute. Beyond the slogan, what exactly are trusted technologies for democracies?

It's a simple idea, really. I first saw how much it matters with 5G, when I worked on the Clean Network initiative during first Trump administration: choosing a supplier meant choosing whom you would depend on. Trusted technologies are critical technologies — such as AI, quantum, 6G, biotechnology, robotics and space — researched, designed, produced and supplied within systems grounded in democratic principles and the rule of law. Technologies must be secure, auditable and interoperable, with enforceable rights if something goes wrong. What matters most to me is that users have credible alternatives. A company entrusting its data and business knowledge to an AI system must retain the practical ability to switch providers. Trust must be verifiable. The Global Trusted Tech Standard, xGTT, which the Krach Institute will launch at the Trusted Tech Summit on November 13, is designed to assess trustworthiness against explicit criteria.

The goal is governable dependence, in which every provider, American and European included, remains accountable.

This applies across the technology stack from critical minerals to applications. No democracy can master every layer alone. Combining our research, capital and industrial capabilities gives democracies the scale required to compete successfully with China in critical technologies.

The technology race is usually told as a duel between Washington and Beijing, and Italy is rarely the first country Americans associate with advanced technology. Why are trusted technologies particularly relevant to Italy?

Supply chains are being redesigned as the geopolitical separation between the United States and China deepens, and companies are diversifying suppliers. That creates an opening for Italy. Americans love our food, art and design, but fewer know that we bring precision engineering, advanced manufacturing, robotics, sensors, space and quantum research.

Our manufacturing base supports physical AI, which operates through robots and industrial machines. U.S.-based IonQ, through its Italian subsidiary, has partnered with Italy's Lutech to develop industrial quantum applications for Italy and Europe.

I think especially of our small and midsize businesses: many excel in specialized niches but lack the scale and visibility to reach the American market. For them, joining a trusted technology ecosystem creates opportunities to grow through American customers, investment and industrial partners. For U.S. companies, it offers specialized know-how and additional trusted suppliers.

In Europe, the debate on digital sovereignty often swings between calls for European champions and resignation to dependence on American platforms. What does the trusted technology approach mean for Italy's and Europe's digital sovereignty?

Digital sovereignty means building interdependence that we can govern.

Creating a “European Google” is not a realistic strategy. Reproducing that ecosystem would require enormous investment, affordable energy and an appetite for high-risk capital that is less common in Europe. For narrowly defined national security missions, the additional cost of sovereign solutions may be justified by the need for operational independence. Extending that model across the commercial economy would impose unsustainable costs.

We should concentrate on capabilities that global platforms need and cannot easily replace. ASML's lithography machines, essential to advanced chipmaking, illustrate how control of a critical node gives Europe influence across the technology system. Italy also holds valuable assets, including Sparkle's Mediterranean connectivity and STMicroelectronics' power semiconductor operations in Italy. A European industrial policy that multiplies such critical nodes, combined with stronger transatlantic partnerships, would increase our negotiating power and strategic autonomy. The aim is reciprocal dependence governed by enforceable rules, so that no partner can turn technological strength into coercion.

U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg attended the October 16 Dialogue, in a fireside chat with Ambassador Marco Peronaci. Through Pax Silica, Washington is reorganizing the supply chains of the AI economy with its allies. How do trusted technologies connect with this initiative?

First, let me thank Ambassador Peronaci and the Embassy team. Their dedication made the Dialogue possible, and their work has given real momentum to our bilateral economic agenda. Pax Silica is one of the most tangible initiatives turning trusted technology into action. It focuses on the supply chains underpinning the AI economy, particularly critical minerals and the semiconductors needed to develop and run AI models.The objective is to reduce excessive concentrations of supply and dependencies that can become instruments of coercion.

Helberg's participation reflects Washington's recognition that technological leadership depends on the strength of allied industrial ecosystems. Italy signed the Pax Silica declaration in Brindisi on July 31. On September 21, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed a bilateral memorandum of understanding on critical minerals, covering mining, processing and recycling. These agreements create a basis for translating political alignment into industrial cooperation.

Dialogues often produce declarations rather than deals, and companies judge initiatives by contracts, not press releases. What are the next steps?

At the Dialogue, we launched the U.S.-Italy Trusted Tech Accelerator. Think of it as a "Tinder" for technology partnerships, with one difference: partners are verified first, through prequalification based on a shared trust framework.

Run by the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue and the Transatlantic Harmonic Foundation it brings together companies, research centers and investment funds around specific needs: American companies sourcing components and expertise in Italy, Italian SMEs seeking U.S. partners and customers, American SMEs entering the Italian market, new ventures from joint research, and partnerships addressing demand in third markets such as Africa.

The initial focus is AI and digital infrastructure, energy and life sciences. The eighteen-month program includes a 2027 roadshow through Texas, California, Indiana and New York, ending in Italy. Success will be measured by results, not events: qualified suppliers, pilots, contracts and licenses.