Óscar López urges Europe to lead its own AI model combining competitiveness, sustainability and digital rights

The Minister for Digital Transformation and Civil Service, Óscar López, during his speech

The Minister for Digital Transformation and Civil Service, Óscar López, has urged the European Union to lead its own model for developing Artificial Intelligence, one that can be competitive, sustainable and respectful of citizens' digital rights.

"We don't want Europe to be just a user of Artificial Intelligence. I am optimistic. We can do things right, being competitive with regulation and respecting digital rights," he argued during his participation in the 'AI and Europe' panel, held during the Grand Continent Summit in the Aosta Valley (Italy).

In response to those arguing that Europe must deregulate to avoid losing competitiveness and falling behind in the current AI race, López defended the "European model," an alternative to that of the United States and China, which guarantees "digital rights, the protection of minors, data protection, and cybersecurity."

Proposal to combat disinformation

López recalled the proposals that the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, put forward at the last Davos forum to address the damage that disinformation and fake news are inflicting on democracy. These proposals, he noted, include ending anonymity on social media, opening up the "black box" of algorithms, and holding platform directors accountable for any legal violations that may occur on their platforms, as is the case in other sectors.

He also cited the Spanish company Multiverse as an example of a sustainable AI model, as this company is able to compress large AI language models by 95%, thus reducing energy consumption.

Finally, López maintained that competitiveness and regulation are perfectly compatible. In this regard, he supported the European Commission's proposal to simplify European digital regulations, although he clarified that "simplification is not deregulation."

Non official translation