MADRID - In a significant move to enhance Spain's technological landscape, the Spanish government and IBM (NYSE:IBM) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to advance the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and supercomputing.
The collaboration, formalized today, aims to create foundational AI models proficient in Spanish and co-official languages, marking a commitment to ethical and responsible AI usage.
The agreement was signed by Darío Gil, IBM's Senior Vice President and Director of IBM Research, and José Luis Escrivá, Spain's Minister for Digital Transformation and Civil Service. The partnership will leverage IBM's open-source AI framework to develop large language models (LLMs) and small language models (SLMs), fostering innovation, transparency, and safety while aiming for a cost-efficient and technologically competitive market position.
The initiative also intends to develop AI-enhanced techniques for new materials discovery, contributing to the sustainability of the semiconductor value chain. The collaboration is seen as a step towards accelerating Spain's AI strategy, particularly in the public sector, with the potential to significantly impact productivity across various economic sectors.
Spanish, spoken by 6.2% of the world's population, will benefit from this focus on developing AI models in the language and its regional variants. The government's coordination with IBM is expected to facilitate the widespread use of AI, with investments in human capital and community-driven AI adoption aimed at benefiting small-medium sized businesses, large enterprises, and the public sector.
The MoU is based on five principles, including promoting foundational model development, collaborating on a full-stack generative AI platform, fostering a responsible AI ecosystem, and advancing the semiconductor industry's sustainability.
This partnership reflects a broader effort by the Spanish government and IBM to position Spain as a global leader in AI, leveraging the country's linguistic influence and IBM's technological expertise. The information for this report is based on a press release statement.
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