A few weeks ago, just a few days after the current Government will take office, the Ministry of Industry, Science and Universities publishes, I would say that at night and I do not know if with treachery, a document in which it says to detail the strategy Spanish Institute of R + D + i on artificial intelligence (AI). A document, they point out, in which a group of experts has been working for several months and that establishes six priorities and seven strategic recommendations, the main objective of which is “to make the tools aimed at promoting R & D & I more effective and indicate how and where different technologies can help our country grow. Personalized medicine, the digitization of services aimed at tourism, the challenges posed by cybersecurity or an interoperable and digital public administration are some of the challenges that artificial intelligence will help solve in Spain ”.
It strikes me that this document, as I have commented, was published when the Country is now engulfed in a whirlwind of campaigns and electoral processes that will lead the new national, regional and local governments to decide whether what has been published in this document , and now we will enter into the detail of those priorities that the Ministry details, is carried out or remains in borage water, to establish a metaphor.
But let’s get to the priorities. What is priority one? Or rather, what are the initial priorities? According to the extensive document of the Ministry of Industry, Science and Universities, maintain as a good practice and reinforce the strategic alignment of the R & D & I policies of Spain with the EU and its R & D & I Framework Program, guaranteeing competitiveness global of Spain; launch an AI capabilities map; support the launch of a Network of nodes in order to achieve a Network of centers of excellence in artificial intelligence; promote the interaction of these networks; highlight the role of the Spanish Ethics Committee in research on the use and implementation of AI; and to establish a series of indicators that allow to analyze the evolution of the promotion mechanisms in R + D + i in artificial intelligence.
The second priority is to establish the strategic areas where to develop the R & D & I activities in artificial intelligence. “We will therefore talk about areas that converge in an AI for Society and an AI for the Economy that correspond to core sectors of our Country and that will increasingly contribute to the development of the different dimensions of the Welfare State in Spain, having taking into account the transversal nature of the Humanities and Social Sciences in all sectors ”, it is stated verbatim in the document. Public Administration, Education, Smart and Sustainable Cities and Territories, and Health would be the areas in AI for Society; and Connected Industry 4.0, Natural Resources, Energy and Environment, Security, Tourism and creative, cultural and experience-based industries, would be the areas to work in the field of AI and the Economy.
In the third of the priorities, the Ministry that Pedro Duque directs, stands out, that it is necessary to maintain the line of good practices such as public-private collaboration in mixed technological ecosystems and calls for artificial intelligence; establish coordination between the Network of Nodes and Centers of Excellence; create a computing platform where R + D + i agents can experiment with their developments before launching them on the market; have training tools aimed at skills and certifications in AI; and analyze and promote the use of financing tools from the State R + D + i Plan to promote the transfer of knowledge, making them more dynamic.
“Developing a system that encourages transversal and professional training in artificial intelligence” is the fourth of the Ministry’s priorities, which says that “R + D + i is responsible for participating in the educational transformation and responding to the need for transversal training and specific following developments in AI technologies ”. And it also takes into account that “this adaptation of training must be extended to professional training methodologies in a context of permanent and accessible learning.”
In the penultimate of the priorities, the Ministry of Industry, Science and Universities considers that it is necessary to develop a digital data ecosystem and value infrastructures, which must be aligned at the European level, and converge with the incorporation of private data.
And the last of the priorities marked in the text, which we will see in the coming months if it has any path, is to analyze the ethics of artificial intelligence from the perspective of R + D + i. To this end, the document explains, “the developments of AI technologies should avoid negative bias and gender biases or other forms of discrimination; The Spanish Research Ethics Committee must lead the activities of analysis and assessment of the ethical aspects of the use of the implantation of artificial intelligence in the activities developed in the State R & D & I Plans; focus, from a multidisciplinary vision, the general design of AI systems from an alignment of ethical, legal and social aspects; and contribute from R + D + i in the drafting of a Code of Ethics for AI ”.
And where are the legal and juridical aspects of all this deployment of priorities, without having entered into the recommendations, about what Spain must undertake in order not to miss the train of artificial intelligence? It is what is missing, among other things, the fourth woman who has recently entered the Royal Academy of Engineering, Nuria Oliver. She, an expert like few others in this field of artificial intelligence, asks him. So we leave the question there, to be answered by whoever has to legislate after the General Elections of 28A.
