{"id":426,"date":"2019-12-03T18:50:35","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T17:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.codemotion.com\/magazine\/interview-norman-di-palo-design-in-the-age-of-ai\/"},"modified":"2021-12-23T13:00:50","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T12:00:50","slug":"interview-norman-di-palo-design-in-the-age-of-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.codemotion.com\/magazine\/ai-ml\/interview-norman-di-palo-design-in-the-age-of-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Design in the Age of AI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hello Norman, for those who don’t already know you, please introduce yourself!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My name is Norman Di Palo, I’m from Naples but I live in Rome<\/span>, though currently I live in Helsinki and I work as an AI researcher in a startup. I have a degree in Automation Engineering where I worked on control and intelligent systems. That\u2019s how I started being interested in cognitive robotics, so I started looking for a Master’s degree that would also include Artificial Intelligence<\/span>. I’m about to graduate now and I’m working on my Master’s thesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for as my work, I founded a startup together with my colleagues. I’m also working in a Pi School and we are involved in making a Pi school where, twice a year, we choose 15 engineering students, any talented figures from around the world. We carry out AI studies and solve problems given to us by companies<\/span>, including Amazon, BNL, Cisco and Poste Italiane. I am an AI Advisor and Project Manager of some of these projects<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could you tell us what led you into the sector of robotics?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I was in high school, I started to think about my future at university and I was interested in studying physics, a subject I always liked. I have to say that it actually had a narrower future than robotics. It is becoming increasingly difficult to make concrete discoveries and many theories have reached a saturation point. I started with automation because it is a branch of engineering<\/span> that embraces computer science<\/span>, electronics and mechanics and seemed to have a much wider scope. That’s what happened and it has taught me lessons related to various sectors. Nevertheless, in the end, I noticed that it was too industry-driven, with robotics that always perform the same functions. Meanwhile, I began to be fascinated by concepts of artificial intelligence<\/span>, the ability of machines to perform actions that can be classified as intelligent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you are interested in these topics, have you ever thought about building a proper AI community?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, one community has just been recently launched by me and two colleagues of mine: Simone Scardapane, and Damiano Gambitta. We launched Tensorflow Rome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the talks that you presented during the #AperiTech meetups was entitled “Design in the Age of AI”. Would you like to tell us a little more about it? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have always been interested not only in Artificial Intelligence<\/span> but in design, architecture and art as well. For some time, I have been thinking how various programmes such as Photoshop have revolutionised the way a photographer, graphic designer or architect works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The talk shows how intelligent algorithms allow designers<\/span> not to lose as much work as many people think they do when talking about AI, but instead to be able to communicate with the computer on a more human level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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