Strong commitment to AI by the European Commission representative in Spain

BarcelonaFacing the deluge of alerts and fear that has shaken the world in recent hours, the representative of the European Commission in Spain, Daniel Calleja, has clearly positioned himself in favor of artificial intelligence (AI): "We must invest more and better in AI. Barcelona has a great opportunity, and so does Spain," he claimed this Tuesday at a congress on the matter organized by the employers' association Foment del Treball.

Without mincing words, he showed his support for "accelerating the adoption of AI" by companies, and "investing in infrastructure, data centers, and connectivity," despite the reservations they generate due to their high energy consumption and environmental resource usage.

Faced with the widespread concern over the capabilities of the new technology, a clear recipe: "The answer lies in managing risks through common regulation."

The cornerstone for Europe

For Calleja, AI "can be an important part of our response" to the challenges in productivity and competitiveness diagnosed in the already famous Draghi and Letta reports.

In his view, the European Union is creating a "favorable ecosystem" to jump on the AI bandwagon, and is well positioned on the international stage, even though it is the United States and China that currently dominate the development of this technology. On the other hand, Calleja argued that "sovereignty does not mean producing everything ourselves," referring to Europe, but rather "not depending on a single supplier." In the Spanish context, he also expressed optimism: according to him, Spain is "at the average, or slightly above" in terms of AI adoption, but he insisted that "it must be accelerated."

Barcelona: yes to AI, but with reservations

"We are not Luddites," proclaimed Jordi Valls this Tuesday. The fourth deputy mayor of Barcelona has insisted on the municipal government's commitment to incorporate artificial intelligence at the forefront. "A city like Barcelona needs at this moment to clearly bet on AI," he proclaimed.

To illustrate his position, Valls distanced himself from the 19th-century English artisans who opposed the Industrial Revolution, but, at the same time, he admitted that Barcelona cannot "close its eyes to the debates that must be raised" regarding this new technology. "We will not accept everything they put on the table," he warned.

Valls has labeled as an "oligopoly" the American companies that control the development of artificial intelligence, and agreed that, in its beginnings, "the ethical debate was pushed aside and a corporate architecture was structured."

Despite Barcelona's commitment to AI, he has defended the human component in decision-making. He recalled that AI "is not an infallible element" because "having a lot of data does not necessarily mean making an intelligent decision." "We need to introduce what we are as humans," he defended.