The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced today at the opening dinner of the Mobile Word Congress (MWC), that the Government will promote the creation of an artificial intelligence language model specifically trained in Spanish and the rest of the official languages of the State. Minutes later, the King warned the representatives of the institutions and large technology companies about the need to “work together to guarantee secure connectivity” and “good use and exploitation” of new tools such as Artificial Intelligence ( AI).
The Mobile Word Congress (MWC), which opens tomorrow, had a preview today with the celebration of a dinner held, as in previous years, in the Oval Room of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC) that was attended by the presence of the King; the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez: the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonés; the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, and other authorities such as the president of Paraguay, Santiago Peña; the Minister of Industry, Jordi Hereu, and the Minister of Digital Transformation, José Luis Escrivá. Institutional normality has not been complete since while Mayor Jaume Collboni, unlike his predecessor, Ada Colau, has been at the reception of the King, President Aragonés has once again entered through another door with the rest of the guests at the dinner and has greeted the head of state at the cocktail party before dinner but not upon his arrival.
At the presidential table, the King sat between the president of Paraguay and the general director of GSMA, Mats Granryd, and, opposite the president of the Government, between Aragonés and the president of GSMA and Telefónica, José María Alvárez-Pallete.
The King closed the speaking session with a speech delivered in English, except for some first phrases in Spanish and others in Catalan. Felipe VI began by remembering the victims of the Valencia fire: “their mourning is the mourning of Spain,” said the King, announcing that tomorrow afternoon, together with the Queen, he will be in Valencia.
The King has defended that technological advances do not violate the security and rights of each citizen and society as a whole. He has also pointed out that digital transformation has become a challenge that “all areas of the economy and governance must face”
For his part, Pedro Sánchez, who combined English and Spanish in his speech, began his speech by thanking the King for his commitment to the MWC. Next, the President of the Government has announced that the Executive will promote the creation of a large foundational model of Artificial Intelligence language trained specifically in Spanish and the other languages of the State. The project will be carried out in collaboration with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, the Supercomputing Network; the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language and the Association of Ibero-American Language Academies. Sánchez added, in line with Le Rey, that “Spain must play a relevant role in the development of AI” calling for a deep reflection on the impact of this technology on society.
Jaume Collboni, in his debut as mayor at the MWC, has reiterated the commitment and determined commitment of the Catalan capital to technology and this congress, in addition to offering the city as a hospital setting for the thousands of congressmen. “The alliance between Barcelona and Mobile is permanent,” he assured.
The general director of GSMA, Mats Granryd, the regular speaker at this dinner for 18 years, began his words in Spanish with an aphorism, “Shrimp that falls asleep, goes with the current”, to explain that the MWC always seeks new challenges to move forward.
For his part, President Pere Aragonés has claimed Catalonia as a “land of opportunities” and as a technological reference thanks to its university and research system and top-level events such as the MWC.
Before the attending directors, Aragonés called for “trust in Catalonia because this is the ideal place for “the most ambitious projects to come true.” The president of the Generalitat concluded his words by saying that Catalonia's will is, with “modesty and humility,” to help “make the world move forward.”
All the speakers, both Collboni and Granryd, Aragonés, Sánchez and the King, have agreed to underline with their presence the importance of collaboration between institutions in an event that confirms Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain as standard bearers of new technologies.
