SPAIN’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez has launched a sweeping 12-month roadmap to rapidly integrate artificial intelligence into the economy while attempting to rein in global tech giants.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez presented ‘Plan IA360’ in Madrid on Monday, outlining a technology push designed to directly benefit small businesses and the self-employed.
The flagship measure is a new ‘AI Bonus’ aimed at SMEs and autonomos to help them fund the adoption of the latest technology.
The government wants more than half of all Spanish companies to have integrated AI into their daily operations by 2030.
Sanchez also took a hardline stance against unregulated tech monopolies, warning that a lack of human oversight is a recipe for ‘chaos and stupidity’.
Taking direct aim at Silicon Valley, the Prime Minister warned modern ‘techno-oligarchs’ that ‘nobody is above the public interest’, comparing their resistance to state rules to the mistakes of industrial monopolists of the past.
“If there is one thing history proves, it is that self-regulation does not work and that the incentives of the few who control these cutting-edge industries will never align with the general interest,” Sanchez said.
“An artificial intelligence without the control of collective human intelligence is not intelligence: it is chaos and stupidity.
“That future is not written, nor is it determined by the actors that are currently terrifying their own designers,” he continued.
“That future depends on us. We will write it ourselves.”
Sanchez cautioned that if advanced systems remain locked in the hands of ‘a few companies and a handful of countries’, the consequences for shared prosperity and democracy itself will be devastating.
But if regulated properly, the government argues AI will serve as an engine to close economic, social, and regional divides, while putting cutting-edge digital tools directly into the hands of teachers and students.
He also confirmed Spain will push for new laws to hold major tech firms legally and financially liable for the damages their products cause.
This includes direct responsibility for malicious ‘deepfakes’, intellectual property theft, and the worsening mental health of children and teenagers.
The roadmap also includes the construction of an AI ‘gigafactory’ and new data centres built to strict environmental standards to guarantee Spain’s sovereignty over its own information.
Sanchez pointed to Spain’s competitive renewable energy network and computing power as the backbone that will allow the country to sustainably host energy-intensive tech infrastructure.
For younger generations, the national curriculum across secondary schools and vocational training, known as FP, will be completely overhauled.
READ MORE: Pedro Sanchez embraces new wave of data centre construction but insists on tough regulations
Students will be formally taught how to use and coexist with the new tools, while safeguarding their traditional learning process.
A national pact between businesses, unions and the government will also be negotiated next month to protect workers from AI-driven job displacement.
Almost half of Spain’s working-age population already uses generative AI, ranking the country sixth in the world for overall adoption.
One in five Spanish companies currently uses the technology on a regular basis.
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