Piero Cipollone on Biography

Piero Cipollone, in his capacity as Deputy Governor of the Bank of Italy, has been a vocal proponent for the increased use of Data Science and Machine Learning (ML) within central banking operations. He highlights that the explosion in the volume of digital data, generated by global internet activity, presents a significant opportunity to gain a better understanding of the economy at both micro and macro levels. He noted that ML algorithms are particularly useful for their ability to work with non-linear relationships in the system, distinguishing them from classical econometrics which focuses more on linear frameworks. This embrace of new analytical tools is driven by the need to cope with an increasingly complex economic environment and derive timely, evidence-based insights for policy.

However, he stresses the need for extreme caution when deploying these new technologies, emphasizing that the necessary skills extend beyond technical expertise to include recognizing inherent challenges and risks. Key concerns raised include selection bias in big/web data, and the critical importance of data integrity, confidentiality, and privacy, especially given the growing ease of merging personal and company data across databases. Furthermore, he noted that successful implementation requires substantial investment in both skilled staff, such as data scientists, and in IT equipment, often through cloud adoption strategies to facilitate high-performance computing use cases and necessary collaboration.