The President of the Government of Spain advocates guaranteeing Artificial Intelligence with democratic values, before the co-founder of OpenAI

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, today held a meeting with the CEO and co-founder of OpenAI, Sam Altman, at Moncloa Palace. The meeting was also attended by the First Vice-President and Minister for the Economy and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, the Secretary General for Economic Affairs and G20, Manuel de la Rocha, and representatives of the company that created ChatGPT.

During the meeting, they discussed the recent development of Artificial Intelligence, along with its enormous potential to contribute to economic growth, reducing inequality and helping resolve global problems. They also discussed the challenges and risks posed by Artificial Intelligence for the protection of democracy and the promotion of transparency. Pedro Sánchez stressed that our country is a European leader in Artificial Intelligence and that the government is committed to the protection of citizens' rights and the defence of democratic values.

The chief executive highlighted Spain's role as a pioneering country in the regulation of this area, as demonstrated by the approval of the Charter of Digital Rights. In this regard, he defended the need for a global supervisory body for this technology and the importance of the forthcoming approval of the European regulation on Artificial Intelligence (AI Act), the negotiation of which will be a priority for the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU. In addition, Spain has promoted a sandbox to agree on a good practice guide to improve the implementation of these activities.

The government has approved the creation of the first Spanish Artificial Intelligence Supervisory Agency (AESIA) in A Coruña, and the European Union has chosen Seville to host the Centre for Algorithmic Transparency. In parallel, the executive has launched the Fond-ICO Next Tech to support cutting-edge start-ups, and has earmarked €500 million from the Recovery Plan to accelerate the development of Artificial Intelligence in Spain.

Non official translation