Madrid, April 5, 2024.- The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the senior vice president of IBM and director of IBM Research, Darío Gil, met this lunchtime at the Moncloa Complex, where they celebrated the new agreement reached between the Executive and IBM that will allow the development of foundational models of Artificial Intelligence, native in Spanish and co-official languages. During the meeting, which was also attended by the Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Service, José Luis Escrivá; the Director of the Office of Economic Affairs of the Presidency of the Government, Manuel de la Rocha, and the President of IBM Spain, Portugal, Greece and Israel Horacio Morell, shared challenges and initiatives that are opening up in the field of artificial intelligence and supercomputing.
The Government of Spain, through the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service, and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote its collaboration in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and supercomputing with AI, advance the development and practical deployment of open, ethical and responsible technologies of generative AI in Spain, and share the vision of creating a set of leading foundational models, which will include both large language models (LLMs) and small language models (SLMs), native in Spanish and co-official languages.
During the meeting in La Moncloa, the President of the Government stressed that agreements such as this demonstrate Spain’s commitment to accelerate the ethical and responsible use of AI, particularly in the public sector, with great impact on productivity for numerous sectors of the economy and on the strategic autonomy of Europe.
Subsequently, the document was signed by Darío Gil, Senior Vice President and Director of IBM Research, and José Luis Escrivá, Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function of the Government of Spain. Leveraging IBM’s open source AI framework, communities will be able to shape and contribute to the LLM in Spanish, which will also include co-official languages (Catalan, Basque, Galician and Valencian) by increasing innovation, transparency and security while ensuring a more economical and technologically competitive position in the market. The collaboration also reflects the intention to develop improved AI techniques for the discovery, development and validation of new materials to increase the sustainability of the semiconductor value chain.
"AI puts us on the threshold of a new industrial revolution, with a very significant potential impact in terms of productivity gains for a large number of economic sectors, and in improving public services for our citizens," said Minister José Luis Escrivá. “The Government of Spain is promoting a useful and ethical development of the opportunities offered by this technology. IBM, with its experience, knowledge and resources, is an excellent partner to accompany us in our vision.”
“IBM shares this vision of accelerating the Spanish Government’s AI strategy and being the national AI partner for Spain,” said Darío Gil, IBM Senior Vice President and Global Director of IBM Research. “We will leverage IBM’s significant investments across the entire AI chain, from computing to modeling, and enable an open community to unlock the full potential of AI technologies. Together, we can ensure ethical use of AI that helps drive sustainable growth in Spain, and in every Spanish-speaking country in the world.”
Spanish is the second most widely spoken language in the world (6.2% of the world's population1). One of the priority areas of this MoU is to collaborate on a set of leading foundational models, which includes both large language models (LLMs) and small language models (SLMs), native in Spanish and co-official languages. The creation of models designed entirely in Spanish will improve AI sustainability by reducing biases and providing competitive alternatives for the Spanish industry. These models will be refined using advanced tuning and alignment techniques, encompassing innovative methods that facilitate direct community improvements and foster an ecosystem of AI creators and builders, using the assets developed through this collaboration.
Recent advances in generative AI and AI supercomputing are very promising for governments and economies that can take advantage of the increases in productivity that these technologies allow. With this collaboration, the Government of Spain is taking decisive steps to seize this opportunity, with timely and transformative commitments, to invest in the AI revolution.
Coordination among government institutions in this area will facilitate both the widespread use of AI in national, regional and local economies, as well as the timely and necessary resources to create competitive advantages in a rapidly evolving AI-driven business environment. This includes investing in human capital (training and tools) and adopting community-driven AI, which ensures that productivity and economic benefits can positively impact the entire fabric of Spain’s economy, from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to large companies and the public sector.