The challenge of artificial intelligence in the new Public Contracts Code: between advantages and risks in the use of algorithms and the human element in automated procedures
di Michela Giachetti Fantini – Enea – Agenzia per le nuove tecnologie, l’energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenibile
The paper analyses the innovations introduced by the article 30 of Legislative Decree 36/2023, concerning the application of automated procedures in the life cycle of public contracts, through technological solutions, including the Artificial Intelligence, evaluating the effects on the italian administrative system and the future perspectives. The work examines the advantages and the risks of using algorithms in administrative decisions and explores the role to be accorded to the human contribution, in order to preserve a “reserve of humanity” in automated procedures, and to ensure the respect of the principles, that administrative jurisprudence has considered as a minimum guarantee of legitimacy for the use of algorithms in administrative decisions. The challenge of Artificial Intelligence, that has been embraced in the article 30 of Italian Public Contract Code, will be regarded in the light of recent approval of Eu AI Act, that provides a regulatory sandbox of Artificial Intelligence at national level and prefigures a problematic qualification of the field of public procurement as a high-risk activity. The automation of administrative procedures through advanced technologies can be extended from the field of public procurement to all public sector. It shows that public administration is evolving toward the model of “Administration 4.0”.
