Carme Artigas on AI regulation: "Beyond defining a legal standard we are defining a moral standard"

May 17. (Portaltic/EP) –

The Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Carme Artigashas valued the role of Spain in the transition towards “a new digital world” with the rise of AI technologies, leading the fair and ethical AI debate in Europe, as well as standing out in projects such as the AI Supervision Agency and the España Dital 2026 agenda.

Artificial Intelligence and technology have led to a situation of change in all areas, causing the departure of a industrial model to a model that “is yet to be defined” and that, according to Artigas, “we are defining together. In this sense, as he has stressed, the The way in which this transition is resolved from Spain “is key”, and for this reason, he has pointed out some of the actions that have already been started and are under development.

First of all, the Secretary of State recalled the work of the Digital Spain 2026 agenda, that marks a roadmap for the digital transformation of the country and that raises make the most of new technologies to make Spain an “attractive country for business, companies and talent”. Thus, as he stressed, with only two years of this agenda, Spain has consolidated its second position among the most digitized economies in Europe.

He has also mentioned the RETECH project (Territorial Networks of Technological Specialization), with which the collaboration of all the Autonomous Communities has been achieved, allocating around 300 million euros to regional AI specification projects and approximately 200 million euros in cybersecurity.

LEADERSHIP OF SPAIN

Following this line, he has also highlighted the work of Spain with the creation of the world’s first AI Supervisory Agencylocated in A Coruña (Galicia).

In addition, he has marked new leadership opportunities. As he has reported, all technological development is being carried out in English and Chinese, so the languages ​​with which AI technologies are trained do not vary in this regard. Nevertheless, along with Latin AmericaArtigas has indicated that “We have the opportunity for Spain to lead the AI ​​language in Spanish.”

Internationally, Artigas has also underlined Spain’s leadership in the fair AI debate “applicable online to ethical principles and values”, with actions such as the development of the bill of digital rights, which has already been presented to the European Union.

“URGENT” REGULATION

On the other hand, the Secretary of State has described as “urgent” need to regulate technology encompassing not only AI, but all the technologies that arrive in the future because “they will create many conflicts for us”. Based on this, he has indicated that it is necessary to specify “what rights we want to preserve as human beings and as citizens in a digital world”.

All this means asking how will protect privacy, the digital press or even know how to discern “when a ‘tweet’ is ironic and is not a threat in the real world”. That is, according to what he has ruled, it is necessary to determine how to interpret and transfer the rights that exist todayin an ‘offline’ society, to the new digital world. “Beyond defining a legal standard we are defining a moral standard”, has sentenced.

It has also pointed out that propose “new rights linked to new risks”. For example, the Secretary of State has referred to risks such as discrimination by an algorithm, manipulation by neurotechnologies, or biases related to sex or race.

Likewise, he has alluded to the prohibition of practices such as facial recognition in public spaces or ‘social scoring’which refers to the creation of social ranking based on people’s lives and their behavior and that “it does exist in countries like China”.

That is why he has warned that the damage that can be created without regulation “is going to be very difficult to go back.” In fact, he has added that if the main risks are not resolved now, future generations “they will not be able to solve ethical and social problems, manipulation or their rights”.

In the same way, Artigas has stated that Neither the United States nor China were in the business of implementing a regulation in order not to slow down innovation with AI, however, he stressed that, now, “there is a turning point” and that all risks are being discussed globally.

TECHNOLOGY FORUM

This is how the Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligence, Carme Artigas, has pronounced during the opening speech of the Technology Forum organized by Europa Press‘Artificial Intelligence as an engine of innovation’, where he has stated that Spain “does not want to be a mere spectator” and that AI technology “is going to be disruptive in our country”.

He The forum has also had the participation of experts from the sector as Taboola Country Manager for Spain and Portugal, Pilar Valcarcel; the CTO of India, Diego Mallada; Salesforce Director of Public Sector Sales, loneliness camacho; and GMV’s Big Data and Artificial Intelligence specialist, Pablo Gonzalez, who have shared their perception of the impact and possibilities of Artificial Intelligence based on their experience in their companies.

During the colloquium all the speakers have agreed on this great potential of AI in issues such as the efficiency or automation of tasks. Likewise, they have also addressed the potential risks of AI with particular emphasis on “fundamental” factors when preserving ethical and legal challenges in AI.

Among other things, they have referred to the Importance of guaranteeing the security and privacy of citizen datalikewise, have pointed out the need to eliminate risks from their use, such as biases.