Spanish PM Sanchez says AI industry cannot be self-regulated

Artificial intelligence cannot be self-regulated by those who control the technology, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday.

Governments worldwide are racing to set rules for AI as concerns grow over privacy, discrimination, job losses, misinformation and the concentration of computing power among a handful of tech giants.

Speaking at an event on AI regulation in Madrid, Sanchez, an outspoken critic of "tech oligarchs", said his government would reinforce its defensive cybersecurity measures to respond to what he described as "aggressive" frontier AI models.

He outlined a 12-month roadmap aimed at supporting responsible deployment and economic growth. The plan includes a proposed AI gigafactory as well as new models developed with the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre for climate, health and energy uses.

Sanchez said data centres needed to meet high environmental and energy standards while protecting data autonomy and benefiting local communities.

"We must develop this technology not behind citizens' backs ... but in a way that people see it as an opportunity rather than a tool for depleting their scarce resources," he added.

Sanchez's remarks came days after the heads of leading US AI labs called for a slowdown in the technology's development, warning it could soon improve on its own and slip beyond human control.

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Additional reporting by Benjamín Mejías Valencia; Writing by David Latona; Editing by Andrei Khalip)