Abstract

The exchange between the work of people and machines begins with the availability of mechanical power, thanks to the steam engine. In particular, to reduce the work pain and its repetitiveness, for example in the textile industry. The fear induced by this kind of changes, has emerged several times and now arises against the use of artificial intelligence tools - and of the derived machines, like the robots - in activities that involve cognitive skills. Robots replace people in the production of goods or services but so far, they are employed only in highly repetitive tasks. With intelligent machines, the outlook is a sharp acceleration of the possible applications, with a profound social revolution in the background. Science must be aware that it is necessary to cope with this issue just now, while we try to avoid the conflicts with interventions inspired by welfare or basic income. We need to create a new participatory basis for the collective life, bearing in mind that machines and computers will substitute people in doing most of the work. And it will not be easy to decide who will have to give them orders.