The new strategy, built around three pivots and eight levers with specific initiatives, updates and extends the Spanish Government’s previous measures, adapting them to the most recent technological advances in this area.
The Council of Ministers, upon a proposal of the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Civil Service, approved, on May 14, 2024, the Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2024, which has been allocated funds of 1,500 million euros.
The strategy is focused on three main pivots:
- Reinforcing the key levers for the development of artificial intelligence (AI): it is sought to reinforce the factors for the development of AI so as to be able to exploit to the utmost the possibilities offered by this technology. In particular, the purpose pursued is to strengthen the capacities of supercomputing, data processing, algorithms and human capital.
Particularly noteworthy is the creation of the foundation language model “ALIA” in Castilian Spanish and other co-official languages so as to boost the development of language technologies accessible to 600 million Spanish speakers under the supervision and certification of the new Spanish Agency for Supervision of Artificial Intelligence (AESIA).
- Facilitating the expansion of AI in the public and private sector by promoting innovation and cybersecurity: it is sought to enable all citizens to access the benefits of AI, by promoting its use both in the public sector and in the private sector, with emphasis on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and on innovation and entrepreneurial processes.
- Prominence of the AESIA: the Spanish Agency for Supervision of Artificial Intelligence (to which we already devoted a previous post) will be the regulatory body in charge of ensuring that technological development is carried out effectively, with a positive social impact, respecting rights and maintaining transparency.
Thus, the AESIA will act as an observer of the evolution of IA, fostering dialogue among the scientific community, industry and civil society, and establishing good practices, principles and recommendations that guide its sustainable and ethical development and evolution.
On the whole, the strategy is committed to a transition to ethical and humanistic AI, respecting human rights and promoting social and economic inclusion, in line with the European AI regulation passed during the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council.
The objectives of the three pivots are embodied in eight “levers”, which can be summarized as follows:
Lever 1: boosting investment in supercomputing
Spain has been a key player in supercomputing at European level, gaining prominence by creating in 2024 the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) with the acquisition and installation of the first supercomputer in Spain, known as "MareNostrum". The Strategy seeks to maintain and strengthen this leading position by means of initiatives which promote supercomputing and its application in productive activity.
In particular, the following initiatives are envisaged:
- Initiative 1.1: Strengthening of supercomputing in IA. It is envisaged that a new cluster specialized in IA will be acquired, with an investment of between 55 and 90 million euros, to update the MareNostrum supercomputer and which will be in operation in 2025.
- Initiative 1.2: Supercomputing services in industry. It is intended to open up supercomputing infrastructures to Spanish industry so as to enhance its competitiveness by the intensive use of these technologies.
- Initiative 1.3: Strengthening of the Spanish Supercomputing Network (RES). It is intended to strengthen the capacities of the Spanish Supercomputing Network and its expansion by the creation of new nodes in Autonomous Regions that do not yet have them.
Lever 2: creating storage capacities under sustainable conditions
The exponential growth of AI involves greater demand for data processing centers (DPCs) and cloud solutions. The Strategy provides for the planning and regulation of growth of DPCs, together with energy efficiency in the development of these infrastructures, for the purpose of preventing saturation of data storage resources from becoming an obstacle to technological development.
To be specific, the following initiatives are envisaged:
- Initiative 2.1: Sustainable data processing centers. A regulatory framework will be developed for the sustainable establishment of DPCs by implementing Directive (EU) 2023/1791 on energy efficiency and its delegated act.
- Initiative 2.2: Planning and regulation in the establishment of DPCs. It is sought to make Spain a pacesetter in the development of sustainable and efficient DPCs.
- Initiative 2.3: Seal and ecosystem for sustainable AI. The future European AI Regulation establishes the obligation to document the energy consumption of general-purpose AI models. Therefore, an effort will be made to define a framework for voluntarily obtaining a seal of quality for sustainable AI.
Lever 3: creating models and a corpus for a public infrastructure of language models
Spain has a valuable linguistic asset with Castilian Spanish and four other co-official languages (Catalan, Basque, Galician and Valencian). Therefore, the strategy seeks to ensure the development and deployment of a language foundation model and specialized models, and that they are placed at the service of the economy and society. Thus, Spain has the opportunity to create the necessary infrastructures to promote AI by means of a family of language models developed using criteria of transparency and reliability, with a greater presence of Castilian Spanish and the co-official languages, which would be a differentiating factor from the dominant models, focused on English. This language model will be called “ALIA”.
For this purpose it is planned to develop a high quality corpus (Initiative 3.1), of foundation models in Castilian Spanish and co-official languages (Initiative 3.2), to generate specialized language or specific-purpose models (Initiative 3.3) and, finally, to deploy the necessary infrastructure and processes for the evaluation of the language models (Initiative 3.4).
Lever 4: promoting talent in AI
Talent is a fundamental pillar for technological transformation. The strategy focuses on developing, attracting and retaining talent in AI, directly correlated to the country’s innovative capacity. For this purpose, provision is made for the following initiatives:
- Initiative 4.1: Institutionalization and strengthening of AI projects in progress.
- Initiative 4.2: Promotion of AI skills. Investment will be made for specialized AI training in all relevant areas (including doctorate programs and research scholarships) and it will be sought to adequately transfer research results to market products.
Lever 5: boosting AI in the public sector
The General State Administration will be encouraged to take advantage of the potential of AI to improve decision making and the efficiency of administrative processes.
For this purpose, an innovation lab will be created, or case study incubator, in order to centralize AI pilot cases and the development of innovative solutions (Initiative 5.1); a centralized technological services node will be established for the General State Administration (Initiative 5.2); and a data governance model will be implemented to ensure security and quality standards (Initiative 5.3).
Lever 6: aiding the expansion of AI in the private sector, notably in SMEs
The strategy seeks to facilitate the adoption of AI in the private sector and, especially, in SMEs and among the self-employed (who usually have greater difficulties to incorporate this kind of technology) so as to increase productivity and create new business opportunities.
In particular, provision is made for the following Initiatives:
- Initiative 6.1: Incorporation of AI into the processes of SMEs. Initiatives will be developed to speed up the adoption of AI solutions and products in SMEs, with a potential budget of 350 million euros. Also notable is the implementation of Kit Consulting, an aid program aimed at enabling SMEs to hire specialized and personalized digital advisory services for their businesses, with a budget of up to 300 million euros and a potential impact on 15,000 businesses.
- Initiative 6.2: Development of entrepreneurship ecosystem in IA. Access to finance will be provided for businesses that develop AI solutions, using resources of the Next Tech fund, with an investment capacity of four billion euros, 10% of which (400 million euros) will be allocated to supporting businesses that undertake AI projects.
- Initiative 6.3: Secure infrastructure for training specific purpose models. Specialized models will be developed on the basis of the foundation model in Castilian Spanish and co-official languages. FEDER funds of 300 million euros will be allocated.
Lever 7: developing a cybersecurity framework
Cybersecurity is essential for confidence in and for the security of the technological transformation of the economy linked to AI. The impact of AI on cybersecurity is significant, since it can play a key role both in preventing and responding to cybersecurity incidents.
Accordingly, cybersecurity legislation will be drawn up (Initiative 7.1) and a business ecosystem of cybersecurity using AI will be promoted (Initiative 7.2).
Lever 8: developing the functions of the AESIA
The final lever of the strategy seeks to develop the functions of the Spanish Agency for Supervision of Artificial Intelligence (AESIA), as the competent body to ensure that safe, responsible and ethical AI systems are deployed in Spain. The initiatives making up this strategic lever are indicated below:
- Initiative 8.1: Creation of a Think & Do Tank of AI intelligence. The aim is to make the AESIA a focal point in Spain, with capacity to undertake analysis of trends and prospects in the AI area.
- Initiative 8.2: Supervision of responsible and innovative deployment of AI. The AESIA must develop the capacity to supervise high-risk AI systems so as to guarantee compliance with EU legislation and ensure that the implementation of AI in Spain is safe and ethical.
- Initiative 8.3: The AESIA as an international pacesetter in artificial intelligence. Finally, the third Initiative seeks to place AESIA as an international pacesetter in AI, extending its influence and leadership beyond Spanish borders, by contributing to dialogue and international cooperation in relation to AI.