Carme Artigas: "Spain is against a moratorium on the development of artificial intelligence"

The inauguration of the European Center for Algorithmic Transparency (ECAT, for its acronym in English) in Seville, the Commission's tool to open the black boxes where the algorithmic systems of the large Internet platforms are hidden, has shown that knowledge how they work and the control of their effects on our daily lives are a matter of State.

In this context, Spain leads the so-called

regulation, a test environment, which includes the study of algorithms, with which it is intended to test the effectiveness of the future European regulation on artificial intelligence, the legal framework that will be applied to this type of computer systems.

An initiative developed by the Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligence, and which is integrated into European policies that seek to legislate digital services across the board, such as the recently approved Digital Services Directive (DSA).

"We are setting a model for the rest of the world, it has been shown that the European way is not the third way, but the only possible way to achieve a more ethical, humanistic and fair artificial intelligence", says its owner, Carme Artigas, in a interview granted to EL PAÍS,

Ask.

and the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence

be integrated with the new center?

Answer.

The European center is a huge boost for Spain in the role of leading the development of an AI [artificial intelligence] that is fairer, more ethical and that integrates principles and values ​​that must be defended in the digital world.

Therefore, the fact that the best researchers are here and that the Spanish administrations are closer to their work and also the private sector, adds to the initiatives that we already had.

The

is already underway and is part of the collaboration we already had with the JRC [acronym for the Joint Research Center, which houses ECAT] and we see many similarities between the AI ​​regulation and the DSA and, therefore, there we see many synergies.

More information

Experts in artificial intelligence demand to stop the "race without control" of the ChatGPT for six months

Q.

When will Spanish companies be able to participate in this testing environment?

regulatory?

A.

We hope that the Royal Decree will be ready within a month to invite Spanish companies to participate and we have set the month of November to offer the first results, coinciding with the AIA [Alliance for Artificial Intelligence] meeting.

Q.

You spoke of the importance of developing a more ethical AI, but that commitment has recently been questioned by several members of the AI ​​Advisory Council and by NGOs following the government's agreement with the ADIA Lab research center, from the United Arab Emirates , a country where human rights are not respected and science is controlled by the Government.

Did the Government correctly calibrate the repercussion that this agreement could have, taking into account the incidence that AI can have on public liberties?

R.

I do not understand the controversy.

This is great news, they are top-level research centers that choose to locate in Spain, not in France or Germany.

There is no ethical conflict.

This is funding, not for a government, not for a center, but for Spanish scientists.

We are supporting Spanish public universities so that we can finance joint lines of work at an international level with any prestigious center in the United Arab Emirates, but also recently the Monterrey Institute of Technology (Mexico) has also decided to locate its European center in Oviedo.

Diplomatic relations are one thing, activism another, and science another.

Carme Artigas, during the interview, this Tuesday in Seville.PACO PUENTES

Q.

It is also questioned that a line of research of that center is on climate change and sustainability when the origin of the funds from the United Arab Emirates is oil.

A.

ADIA's sovereign wealth fund is financing COP28 with the United Nations.

If the United Nations makes an agreement with a country, I am not going to question it.

We do not question countries, we know that as countries have a lower level of democracy than we do, our country can have diplomatic and commercial relations with the countries it deems appropriate.

We are for supporting Spanish scientists and there is nothing better than helping the democratic evolution than exchanging knowledge as a country.

Q.

Is the scientific and ethical safeguarding of the research carried out in this center that will be opened in Granada guaranteed?

R.

It is that things that are unquestionable have been questioned, such as the academic freedom of Spanish scientists. Or does anyone doubt that a Spanish scientist, if he feels minimally directed in his research, is not going to raise his hand and go to say that you no longer want to collaborate with them?

Scientists are the ones who have the freedom to decide.

Q.

The members of the Advisory Council and NGOs also question that they are not sufficiently taken into account in decision-making.

A.

They are different things.

With the Advisory Council we have three official meetings a year with the vice president [Nadia Calviño] and every month we have work meetings and calls from my management team.

The relationship is continuous, what happens is that it is a consulting body that has many perspectives and there is never a consensus.

With the NGOs, I was the one who requested a meeting at the highest level and they asked me about the role of civil society in the regulatory

supervision team

, but for this technical work to begin it is necessary that the Royal Decree Law, which has not yet been approved, be approved first.

Q.

Recently, scientists, experts and tech moguls have called for a moratorium on the development of generative AI, such as ChatGPT.

What do you think?

R.

We do not agree at all that research and innovation stop.

Instead, what you have to do is speed up to solve the problems that companies have created.

Innovation must be accelerated with limits.

Trying to put a product on the market that is not finished, without the same controls that a car or medicine would have, and telling people to try it and see where the flaws are to see how I can improve it, which is what has made ChatGPT, is what is not correct.

ChatGPT has gone from the research part to the commercial part too fast.

But it has served to raise awareness that the path that Europe was following, defending digital rights, is the correct one.

Q.

Are the existing regulation in Europe and the future European AI regulation sufficient mechanisms to control the development of generative AI?

A.

The whole set: the European data protection regulation, the DSA for the control of illegitimate content, and the AI ​​regulation can decide that a generative AI can fall within the category of risk algorithms and all the algorithmic supervision insofar as it does not bias, does not discriminate, does not offer false information...

Q.

The regulation is expected to be ready in 2025, but we have seen how ChatGPT has developed very quickly in four months.

Isn't there the risk that in the end the legislative responses will always lag behind the technology?

A.

No, no.

What you have to do is close the legislative file.

In the case of the AI, it is expected to be approved in January 2024 and therefore the importance of the European presidency that the legislative file be closed.

Spain is going to have to close the legislative file of the European AI tool.

That is why the

was created , because what we do not want is that when it comes into force, it takes two years to be implemented or that a moratorium is requested because companies are not prepared to apply them.

That is why what we do is so important, because we are anticipating the technical and operational implementation of specific things of the law.

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