The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced last night at the opening dinner of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) that the Central Government will promote the creation of an artificial intelligence language model specifically trained in Spanish and the other official languages ??of the State. Minutes later, the King warned the representatives of institutions and large technological companies of the need to “work together to guarantee secure connectivity” and a “good use and exploitation” of new tools such as artificial intelligence ( AI).
The Mobile World Congress, which opens today, had a preliminary session yesterday with the celebration of a dinner, as in previous years, in the Oval Room of the National Museum of Art of Catalonia (MNAC), which had the presence of the King; the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez; the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès; 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 was not complete, since while Mayor Jaume Collboni, unlike his predecessor, Ada Colau, did attend the King’s reception, once again President Aragonès entered through another door with the rest of the dinner guests and greeted the head of state at the pre-dinner cocktail, but not when he arrived.
At the presidential table, the King sat between the president of Paraguay and the director general of the GSMA, Mats Granryd, and in front of the president of the Spanish government, between Aragonès and the president of the GSMA and Telefónica, José María Alvárez- pallet
The King closed his turn with a speech delivered in English, except for the first few sentences in Spanish and others in Catalan. Felipe VI began by remembering the victims of the fire in Valencia: “Their grief is the grief of Spain”, said the King, announcing that this afternoon, together with the Queen, he will be in Valencia.
The King defended that technological advances do not violate the security and rights of each citizen and society as a whole. He also pointed out that the 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 during his speech, began his speech by thanking the King for his commitment to the MWC. Next, the President of the Central Government announced that the Executive will promote the creation of a large foundational model of artificial intelligence language specifically trained 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 the King, that “Spain must play a relevant role in the development of AI”, calling for deep reflection on the impact of this technology on society.
Jaume Collboni, in his debut as mayor at the MWC, reiterated the Catalan capital’s commitment and determined commitment to technology and this congress, in addition to offering the city a hospitable setting for the thousands of congress participants. “The alliance between Barcelona and El Mobile is permanent”, he assured.
The director general of the GSMA, Mats Granryd, the regular speaker at this dinner for 18 years, began his words in Spanish with an aphorism, “camarón que se duerme, se lo leva la corriente”, to explain that MWC is always looking for new challenges to move forward.
For his part, President Pere Aragonès vindicated Catalonia as a “land of opportunities” and as a technological reference thanks to the university and research system and top-level events such as the MWC. In front of the attending managers, Aragonès appealed to “trust Catalonia, as 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, Aragonès, Sánchez and the King, agreed to emphasize with their presence the importance of collaboration between the institutions in a competition that confirms that Barcelona, ??Catalonia and Spain are at the forefront of the new technologies
