Spain Launches AI Regulation Agency: Set to Become Industry Leader

• Spain has become one of the first countries in Europe to create a task force for regulating AI, called the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence (AESIA).
• The agency is part of Spain’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy and aims to make development inclusive, sustainable, and citizen-centered.
• The European Union recently passed the Artificial Intelligence Act which imposes restrictions on certain technologies and prohibits others.

Spain Launches AI Regulation Agency

Spain became one of the first countries in the EU to establish its own task force for regulating AI on Aug. 22, when the Council of Ministers approved a Royal Decree establishing the new agency.

Objectives of AESIA

The Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence (AESIA) should guarantee, along with the national digital strategy, that AI development in Spain will be “inclusive, sustainable, and citizen-centered.”

EU AI Act

In June, the European Union passed the Artificial Intelligence Act , a legislative framework for governance and oversight of AI. Once enacted, this legislation would impose restrictions on a range of artificial intelligence services and products while outright prohibiting others.

AI Technologies Prohibited

Among technologies that would face a complete ban are biometric surveillance, social scoring systems, predictive policing algorithms, emotion recognition software and untargeted facial recognition systems.

AI Technologies Permitted

                                                                                                       

However generative AI models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard would be permitted to operate provided that their outputs are conspicuously marked as AI-generated.