Artificial intelligence and human intelligence: a comparison in space
At the Artificial Intelligence Forum supported by iNEST, Amalia Ercoli-Finzi recalled the Rosetta mission and the role of humanity in the era of data
“Even while standing at the frontier of knowledge, the aerospace sector remains highly conservative and cautious regarding the use of artificial intelligence: when faced with the unknown and with complexity, human intelligence dominates, designs, processes—and humanity expresses the best of itself in its most challenging undertakings.” These were the words of Amalia Ercoli-Finzi, who dialogued with Prof. Gianluigi Rozza, coordinator of iNEST Spoke 9, during the event AI and Space: Humanity at the Center of Exploration, one of the appointments of the second edition of the Artificial Intelligence Forum in Tavagnacco, supported by iNEST and held from 17th to 19th October 2025.
The first woman in Italy to graduate in aeronautical engineering (when aerospace engineering as a degree did not yet exist), former professor at Politecnico di Milano and scientific consultant for NASA, ESA, and ASI, Amalia Ercoli-Finzi retraced her experience in the Rosetta mission (2004–2016), highlighting a central point: the role of the human being in the chain of knowledge, especially when technology, data, and awareness must operate together to understand complex phenomena.
Rosetta, space, and human ingenuity
Blending personal recollections with behind-the-scenes episodes, Amalia Ercoli-Finzi recounted the crucial stages of the Rosetta mission and its lander Philae, vividly describing the tension, expectations, and decisions made under conditions of uncertainty. With a gaze turned toward the present, she imagined how artificial intelligence could have supported the mission, especially in the most repetitive and cognitively demanding tasks.
She recalled, for example, the thousands of images manually analyzed in search of an instrument lost after Philae malfunctioned during its landing on comet 67P. It was a long and complex task, one that today could be entrusted to automatic recognition algorithms. “AI works in a completely different way from natural intelligence,” she explained. “It does not use equations like a human being, but extracts the essence of the data and from this draws conclusions.” Words that invite reflection on a crucial aspect of using artificial intelligence: not so much what it does, but how it does it.
According to Amalia Ercoli-Finzi, the value of AI does not lie in replacing humans, but in enhancing their abilities—freeing them from mechanical tasks and leaving them responsible for strategic decisions. In this sense, the lesson of Rosetta becomes a message for the future of research and scientific simulation: technology must not overshadow the human dimension, but amplify it. And above all, artificial intelligence is not neutral: as she reminds us, “within the conclusions drawn by AI lie all of our own biases.”
From space exploration to digital twins: AI supporting human intelligence
The reflections of Amalia Ercoli-Finzi resonate directly with the work of iNEST Spoke 9, which aims to develop mathematical models, computational tools, and automatic learning technologies capable of supporting human beings in understanding and managing complex systems—from engineering to medicine, from the environment to infrastructure.
Digital twins require increasingly advanced simulations, algorithms, and predictive capabilities. But—as Amalia Ercoli-Finzi teaches—it remains essential to ensure several fundamental aspects: transparency of models, human supervision, awareness of biases embedded in data, and responsibility in decision-making.
Even within the context of Spoke 9, therefore, it is crucial to promote tools that integrate AI and physical modeling while keeping the human being at the center of understanding and choice.