The changes in the world of artificial intelligence (AI) are moving so fast that it is difficult to assimilate them. While society gets used to the idea that it is approaching a crossroads that will change the way it works or social relationships, reality is far ahead of this entire debate. The business competition between Google and OpenAI, for example, has given more than enough reasons this week for us to direct our attention to this authentic revolution. Concerned about the war conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine or the continuous chain of elections that we suffer in our country, AI seems to be lagging behind in terms of social interest.
I invite you to follow the presentations of the new conversational robots that both companies have announced this week. It is no longer a matter of the user maintaining a linear interaction through a query and the corresponding response, but rather the questioned robot acts as if it were a person. Thanks to the camera and audio device on your mobile, you can describe everything you see and even search for an object if it has been lost. The new search engines created with generative AI are no longer limited to offering a list of places to see, but can offer the user all kinds of suggestions according to their interests and the accumulated experience of previous queries. Last May, Google also presented new AI research that advances scientific understanding of how living things work, which will completely transform the way drugs are created.
Therefore, the boost that the Government has given to the expansion of the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer with an extra 90 million euros can be described as very good news. The growth of the facility, which was already the largest in Europe, was planned for 2029, but the ministry headed by José Luis Escrivá has endorsed the requests of those responsible for the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) to advance these funds and take the oath so that Brussels also advances its part. In this world, everything moves so fast that Spain cannot be left behind. In a country that has such low levels of productivity, AI is a great opportunity that should be taken advantage of.
