• The Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Service, Óscar López, reaffirms the government’s commitment to an AI that promotes peace and science-based knowledge, and not that uses disinformation as a weapon

The Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López, is hosting from today the second meeting of the International Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence, which it constituted last June with the aim of advising the Government on the key aspects in the development and future of this technology, as well as the potential trends, challenges and opportunities that it entails. In this meeting, which will take place today and tomorrow at the ministerial headquarters, the eleven members of the council will discuss four specific issues: Technological Sovereignty, Algorithmic Transparency, European Regulation and AI and Competitiveness.

In welcoming the members of the council, the minister reaffirmed the Spanish Government’s commitment to an AI “at the service of people and progress, that promotes the maintenance of peace and open science, and not that uses disinformation as a weapon.”

Eleven months after the first meeting of this Council, which focused on topics such as the Governance of AI, the Protection of Minors or the future of the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence (AESIA), Óscar López has shared with the experts the main advances of the Government in the field of AI.

Among them, the design of a triple digital shield to adapt Spanish legislation to European regulations on AI, digital services and media freedom or the voluntary contribution of three million euros to the United Nations to open in Valencia a division of its Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies focused on research on AI governance.

National Artificial Intelligence Strategy

Accompanied by the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, María González Veracruz, the minister explained how Spain is implementing its National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, updated just a year ago and which is endowed with more than 1.5 billion euros. And he has detailed some of the “useful and outstanding milestones” in which it has already been embodied.

Among others, it has focused on the launch of ALIA, a public and open family of trained linguistic models with approximately 20% of its entries in Spanish and other official languages; the selection of the National Supercomputing Center of Barcelona as one of the first seven AI Factories of the European Union; the launch of the first 100% quantum computer manufactured in Europe; the creation of the Spanish Agency for Supervision of Artificial Intelligence (AESIA), the first of its kind in Europe; or the promotion of the Digital Rights Charter and the Digital Rights Observatory.

To all this, he added the importance of talent promotion, through a training and research agenda in which programs such as the National Digital Skills Plan, endowed with more than 3.5 billion euros, have already trained more than 1.5 million citizens in Spain; an alliance with universities and companies through the Chip, Cybersecurity and ENIA Programs; or Building Generation IA, an initiative endowed with 120 million euros to finance the contracts of 374 experts for four years to investigate new cases of AI use in Spanish public centers.

Members of the International AI Advisory Council

-Manuel Castells, President of the Council. Professor of Communication Technology and Society at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and Professor Emeritus of the University of California, Berkeley.

- Paul S. Adler. Adler. Professor of Management and Organization, Sociology and Environmental Studies at the University of Southern California and expert in the theory of organizational structures.

- Francesca Bria. Honorary Professor at the Institute of Innovation and Public Purpose of the University of London and former President of the Italian National Innovation Fund. Expert in innovation and digital policies.

- Vint Cerf. Considered the "father" of the Internet and awarded multiple prizes, including the National Medal of Technology and the Turing Prize.

- Kate Crawford. Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research and Research Professor at USC Annenberg, expert on the social and political implications of AI.

- Jerome A. Feldman. Feldman. Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley and leader in Computer Engineering and Cognitive Science.

- Luciano Floridi. Director of the Center for Digital Ethics and Professor in the Cognitive Sciences Program at Yale University. Expert in artificial intelligence ethics.

- Jeroen van den Hoven. Professor of Ethics and Technology at Delft University of Technology and Scientific Director of the Delft Design for Values Institute.

- Carissa Véliz. Associate Professor at Oxford University’s Institute of AI Ethics, author of ‘Privacy is Power’ (book of the year for ‘The Economist’).

-Erika Staël Von Holstein. Executive director of the independent think tank Reimagining Europe, based in Brussels, and expert in AI and political polarization.

- Niklas Lundblad. Expert in technology policy and responsible technologies, and global manager at Google, with more than 20 years of experience in analysis and debate on technology policy.