After months of writing, studying, rereading, and discussing, Changing the Shape of the Table: How Artificial Intelligence Can Accelerate or Destroy Gender Equality is finally out.
The first public presentation will take place on Tuesday, November 3rd in Pistoia, Italian Book Capital 2026, in the Terzani Auditorium of the San Giorgio Library. It will be a special occasion, not only because it marks the beginning of the book’s public presentation, but also because it will allow me to engage with Elena Bascone, author of Italian Dream: The Art of Looking to the Future and author of the preface to my book.
Why “Changing the Shape of the Table”?
The title stems from a conviction that has developed over the course of my professional, institutional, and association experiences. When we talk about gender equality, we often focus on the need to increase the number of women in decision-making positions. This is an essential step, but it alone is not enough.
We can add new seats at the table and leave the rules, hierarchies, languages, and priorities that govern it unchanged. We can be present without actually being able to influence decisions. We can count women without asking who is listened to, who is progressing, who has resources, and who is helping to shape the future.
Changing the shape of the table therefore means rethinking the places where power is exercised: who has access to it, what skills are recognized, what experiences are considered relevant, and what idea of society guides decisions.
This question becomes even more urgent in the face of artificial intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence Is Not Neutral
Artificial intelligence is transforming work, education, healthcare, communication, public services, and the way decisions affecting people’s lives are made.
These technologies can offer extraordinary opportunities, but they do not emerge in a neutral space. They learn from data produced by our societies and can therefore incorporate stereotypes, exclusions, and power relations. If developed and used without carefully considering differences, they risk making existing discrimination faster, more widespread, and less recognizable.
In the book, I have tried to describe this transition without demonizing the technology. Artificial intelligence is not a pre-ordained destiny: much will depend on the choices we make, the people involved in its design, the rules we adopt, and the objectives we decide to pursue.
This is why the book interweaves data, experiences, stories, and proposals. It is aimed not only at technology experts, but above all at those who think artificial intelligence is a topic distant from their own lives. Understanding its effects is now a necessary condition for consciously participating in the decisions that are shaping our future.
I would like the book to reach girls and young women as well, so that they can recognize the game being played and feel empowered not only to use new technologies, but to design them, manage them, and decide their intended purposes.
Elena Bascone’s Perspective
I chose Elena Bascone to write the preface because her career path perfectly represents the intersection of public policy, technological innovation, and a vision for the future.
Elena is a political economist, writer, conceptual artist, and international consultant specializing in tech policy, international sanctions, and the European Union’s digital transition. Her experience at European institutions and her research and consulting work allow her to view technology not only as technical innovation, but as a terrain for political, economic, and social choices.
In her novel, Italian Dream. The Art of Looking to the Future, published by Mondadori, she tells the story of Lia, a young woman searching for her future. It is a coming-of-age novel, a story of transformation, and an invitation, especially to young women and men, not to give up on their dreams and the possibility of influencing reality.
I recognized in her work a sensibility similar to that which permeates my own book: the belief that the future should not simply be predicted or expected, but can be imagined, discussed, and built. For this reason, the Pistoia dialogue will offer the opportunity to connect two perspectives and two generations.
From Antiquity to Artificial Intelligence
The November 3rd meeting is titled “Gender Equality and Female Empowerment: From Antiquity to AI” and is organized by YouLab Pistoia – An American Corner.
Our two books address different topics, but they share some fundamental questions: what space is given to women in building society? Who can imagine the future? Who has the tools to realize it? How can culture, public policies, and technologies expand opportunities, rather than restrict them?
Pistoia, Italian Book Capital 2026, is the ideal place to begin this journey.
Books don’t just offer answers: they allow us to build a public space in which to ask questions, question what we consider inevitable, and imagine different possibilities.
My hope is that this first presentation will become the beginning of a broader conversation. Because artificial intelligence concerns everyone. And because changing the shape of the table requires many voices, many perspectives, and the willingness to build new rules together.
Gender Equality and Female Empowerment: From Antiquity to AI
Tuesday, November 3, 2026, from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Terzani Auditorium – San Giorgio Library
Via Sandro Pertini 340, Pistoia
With Monica Cerutti, author of Changing the Shape of the Table: How Artificial Intelligence Can Accelerate or Destroy Gender Equality, and Elena Bascone, author of Italian Dream: The Art of Looking to the Future.
Admission is free while seats last.
