INDUSTRY 4.0.: THE EXPLOITATION OF BIG DATA AND FORTHCOMING PERSPECTIVES

The first industrial revolution consisted in the mechanization that exploited the power of water and steam; the second came in the nineteenth century with mass production (Fordism); the third with the development of computers and their automation. Currently, we live in the era of so-called Industry 4.0, as has been named after the German scientists Kagermann, Lukas and Whalster. The development of Industry 4.0 is ascribable to the exploitation of information technology - through interconnection, collaboration and data analysis. These are all factors that depend on a fundamental element: information, which derives from the Latin noun "informatio (-nis)". The ability to analyse and identify (and (and interpret) information interconnections, through the progressive introduction of new technologies, will change (and in part is already changing) the production's methods: with the increase in integration between the various phases of production and client assistance, there will also be greater direct collaboration between the relevant actors. Big Data, in particular, allow us to investigate the smallest details and at the same time to identify large-scale large-scale correlations, so far unknown, with an infinite potential: most of the industrial companies, aware of the potential inherent in these processes, have already started to digitalise their production, their logistic and commercial procedures. Spontaneous questions then arise: where information is actually found, who owns it (which is not indifferent from the point of view of privacy matters), what potential economic exploitation are available. Two themes will be fundamental. The first concerns the so-called "end of work": increasingly sophisticated machines and robots that work, human workers who lose their jobs and income. The second concerns new legislative rules necessary to regulate robots' work and consequent algorithms that guide them: what happens if an intelligent robot causes damages? Whose responsibility is it? What can we say about security and privacy? The subject is so warm and sensitive that recently the European Parliament has proposed rules on civil law on robotics to the European Commission and further analysis is needed.