Bruno de Finetti’s Machines That Think (and Make You Think) and the Early Reception and Dissemination of Artificial Intelligence in Postwar Italy

This article examines Bruno de Finetti’s 1952 publication Machines That Think (and Make You Think) (original Italian: Macchine che pensano (e che fanno pensare)) as a foundational text in the early reception and dissemination of ideas related to artificial intelligence (AI) in Italy. Based on his 1950 study tour of U.S. computing centers, de Finetti’s reportage combines firsthand observation of early digital calculators with critical reflections on cybernetics, memory systems, and the conceptual boundaries of thought. Positioned between technical report and philosophical essay, the text offers a unique mediation of emerging computational paradigms for an Italian scientific audience. By contextualizing this work alongside parallel developments by Silvio Ceccato, Louis Couffignal, and Norbert Wiener, the article argues for its significance in the broader European intellectual history of AI. It highlights de Finetti’s role as a cultural broker and underscores the cross-cultural nature of AI’s early history—a narrative often dominated by U.S. and British developments.