Spain has established its own Artificial Intelligence (AI) regulatory task force, the Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence (AESIA), which will guarantee that AI development in the country will be “inclusive, sustainable, and citizen-centered.”
The Council of Ministers authorized a Royal Decree establishing the AESIA on August 22. The Spanish Ministry of Finance and Civil Service and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation will collaborate to develop the Agency.
The Agency is included in the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy strategy. Spain seeks to become a leader in artificial intelligence. According to the press release, the nation was the first in Europe to establish an AI-specific agency.
In June, the European Union enacted the Artificial Intelligence Act, a legal framework for the governance and oversight of artificial intelligence. Once passed, the legislation would restrict various services and products involving artificial intelligence while explicitly prohibiting others.
Biometric surveillance, social scoring systems, predictive policing algorithms, emotion recognition software, and untargeted facial recognition systems would be prohibited entirely.
Nevertheless, generative AI models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard would be permitted to operate if their outputs are marked as AI-generated. The EU AI Act mandates that all Union nations establish national oversight agencies for Artificial Intelligence.
