MARCO GORI, LUIGI MARIA PEROTTI
Tales from Neurocene is an experimental animation project that brings together AI research and narrative imagination, born from the encounter between director Luigi Maria Perotti and the reflections of Prof. Marco Gori (University of Siena). As part of the geniaLAB program, the event raises a core question: what kind of future are we building if AI continues to evolve without rethinking its technical, energy, and cultural models? The starting point is “The Final Chapter,” a short prologue that introduces the world of Tales from Neurocene. The film depicts a post-apocalyptic scenario in which a single centralized artificial intelligence, called “N,” governs the planet with the stated goal of “re- educating” humanity.
The Neurocene is not merely a fictional setting: it functions as a critical device, a provocation that stages contemporary tensions between technological power, collective responsibility, environmental impact, and competing visions of progress. Alongside its creative dimension, the project opens up a concrete reflection on the current “cost” of AI: energy use, resources, and infrastructure. This is where the work of SAILab (Siena Artificial Intelligence Lab), led by Prof. Gori, comes in, focused on approaches that are less energy-intensive and more distributed, moving beyond the idea of single, concentrated systems. The hypothesis of a decentralized, connective, and accessible AI is presented as a possible alternative to the logic of total centralization represented in the world of the Neurocene.
The initiative therefore serves as a space for dialogue between art, technology, and research, where experimentation with AI tools becomes an opportunity to question authorship, aesthetic choices, and ethical implications. It is an invitation to look beyond the novelty effect of the tools and to discuss, on an informed basis, what model of artificial intelligence is desirable and sustainable in the long term. Speakers Luigi Maria Perotti is a director and documentary filmmaker with twenty years of experience in reportage and television. In recent years, he has developed projects experimenting with languages and workflows based on artificial intelligence tools. Marco Gori is Full Professor of Computer Science at the University of Siena and Director of SAILab. He is among Italy’s AI pioneers, known for his contributions to machine learning and for promoting AI development strategies focused on sustainability and the decentralization of systems.
