In *Agenda Digitale*, Mirta Michilli reflects on lifelong learning as a democratic infrastructure for tackling the transformations brought about by artificial intelligence
In the age of artificial intelligence, the most profound challenge we face concerns our ability to continue learning throughout our lives.
This is the central theme of the new article by Mirta Michilli, Director-General of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, published in Agenda Digitale under the title “Young people, adults and AI: knowledge as a democratic infrastructure”.
The article begins with an observation: AI can represent a “cognitive shock”, capable of highlighting just how fragile the system of lifelong learning still is today. Learning to understand and use artificial intelligence does not, in fact, mean simply becoming familiar with a new tool, but rather developing linguistic, logical, digital and critical skills that enable one to formulate questions, verify answers and sources, recognise errors and distortions, and exercise one’s own judgement.
This reflection echoes the teachings of Tullio De Mauro, for whom the possession of the tools of knowledge is an essential condition for participating fully in democratic life. A perspective that today necessarily extends to digital environments and artificial intelligence systems.
Education that bridges the gaps
AI, Michilli observes, is emerging in a society already marked by significant educational inequalities. The data cited in the article show not only Italy’s lag in educational attainment and adult participation in training, but also a paradox: it is primarily those who already possess more resources and opportunities who continue to pursue further education. For this reason, lifelong learning cannot be regarded solely as an individual responsibility. It must become a genuine policy for the redistribution of knowledge, capable of reaching those with fewer educational opportunities: people with low levels of qualification, older adults, workers in small businesses, the unemployed and areas with a weaker educational provision. AI literacy forms part of this approach. The new form of the digital divide concerns not only access to technologies, but increasingly the ability to understand, evaluate and manage them.
Learning in the places where life happens
Another key aspect concerns the settings for lifelong learning. Training must move beyond traditional contexts alone and become accessible where people live, work and build relationships: in schools, libraries, businesses, community centres, public services and third-sector organisations. This is an approach that has always been at the heart of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale’s work: starting from people’s practical needs, creating opportunities to experiment and exchange ideas, and pairing technology with individuals capable of navigating its complexity – such as teachers, trainers, digital facilitators, educators and skilled volunteers. These very contexts can become spaces for intergenerational learning, where young people’s familiarity with devices and platforms meets the experience, memory and judgement of adults.
Knowledge as a democratic infrastructure
The article concludes with a broader proposal: to transform the sense of urgency generated by artificial intelligence into an opportunity to build a national policy on lifelong learning, capable of linking education, work, citizenship and participation. Guaranteeing the right to lifelong learning, supporting widespread educational provision and valuing formal, non-formal and informal learning means investing in people’s ability to participate consciously in change. In the age of artificial intelligence, Michilli concludes, reading, writing, reasoning, interpreting data and understanding how an algorithm works all belong to the same cultural ecosystem. Innovation becomes democratic when the tools of knowledge are truly accessible to all.
Lifelong learning
Young people, adults and AI: knowledge as democratic infrastructure
Artificial intelligence is accelerating transformations in work, services and daily life, but above all it is putting our capacity for lifelong learning to the test. AI literacy thus becomes a matter of citizenship, democracy and reducing inequalities
by Mirta Michilli
Digital Agenda, 26 August 2026
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