New boundaries of the precautionary principle for a new normality

In the current framework of the risk society all the sectors of the public administration are affected by an increasing need of digital transition. Within this context and after the global Covid-19 pandemic, public administrations apply precaution as a primary and ordinary guideline in the exercise of their discretionary powers and, therefore, the precautionary principle appears to be a carrier of a new normality. In this light, the paper aims to investigate the interconnections between precautionary principle and artificial intelligence in order to investigate if and how artificial intelligence could be an effective and sustainable tool to manage and contrast the increasing unknown risks of the new normality. In particular, artificial intelligence may intervene and support the administrations during the entire decision making process, selecting relevant facts and available scientific evidences, identifying the potential negative effects, tracking the potential risks and the possible outcomes of the decision process. In this context, the paper explores the critical questions that arise from the links between AI and precautionary principle and outlines some possible rules and patterns in order to guide the exercise of the public power in the described scenario.