Artificial intelligence and the Italian language, initiative in Jeddah

(ANSA) - ROMA, 28 OTT - Italian and artificial intelligence were the focus of activities during the Italian Language Week 2024 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
    Promoted worldwide by the diplomatic-consular network and the Italian Cultural Institutes, the Week was celebrated here in collaboration with the Italian school and the most prestigious universities in Jeddah.
    The event began at the Italian school where, starting with a reading of the book Uno come Antonio by Susanna Mattiangeli, winner of the 2018 Andersen Prize, Barbara Schiaffino, editor-in-chief of the monthly children's literature magazine Andersen and a member of the Italian Publishers' Association's permanent commission of children's publishers, illustrated the state of contemporary children's literature. Pedagogist Peppe Coppola then invited the children to translate theory into practice, i.e. the texts into a free theatrical interpretation. This was followed by a workshop on words, which started with the work of Bruno Munari.
    The topic of artificial intelligence was introduced by Mario Orabona, associate professor at the Department of Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering at Kaust University in Jeddah, who addressed the topic of Italian embedded in the mechanisms of AI machine translation, showing the creative power of this tool and investigating the mechanisms of machine translation with various concrete examples of interaction with ChatGPT.
    In the afternoon, the activities moved to the Ubt-University for Business and Technology in Jeddah, a traditional partner of the Week of Language and Structure where, on the initiative of Consul General Leonardo Costa, the first university course of Italian language in Saudi Arabia was inaugurated in 2024, which currently has 70 students. Here, a more in-depth study of machine translation tools and the logical and creative paths of AI was proposed, providing elements on central themes for current technological development such as 'Large Language Models' and neural networks, and showing concrete examples of interaction with ChatGPT models.