AI Race: Portugal Calls for Technology to Serve People
In its intervention in Riyadh, Portugal brought to the UNESCO Global Forum a message of cooperation at a time when the international debate is intensifying over the pace of Artificial Intelligence development, its risks, and the competition for technological leadership.
Amid an international debate over how far and how fast the development of Artificial Intelligence should advance, and who will lead this technological transformation, Portugal argued at the UNESCO Global Forum on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence that the response cannot be reduced to a race for supremacy. Instead, cooperation between countries, companies and innovators is essential to ensure that the benefits of AI are shared.
This position was expressed on Monday by Maria do Céu Patrão Neves, President of the Portuguese National Council of Ethics for the Life Sciences (CNECV), who is leading the Portuguese delegation in Riyadh, at a time when the risks associated with the rapid development of AI systems have once again moved to the centre of the international debate.
“We need to bring innovators and the countries competing for leadership in Artificial Intelligence to the same table, recognising that true power does not lie in the struggle for technological supremacy, but in the ability to place technology at the service of people’s well-being,” said Maria do Céu Patrão Neves.
Portugal’s message comes as the debate intensifies over whether the development of the most advanced Artificial Intelligence models should be accelerated or slowed down, while technological competition between major powers is playing an increasingly important role in shaping international AI policies.
For Patrão Neves, however, the issue goes beyond the speed of innovation or technological leadership. The growing use of Artificial Intelligence in public administration, businesses, education and many other areas of social life also makes it essential to ensure transparency, explainability, accountability and protection against discrimination.
It was in this context that Portugal presented in Riyadh some of the measures already adopted to translate ethical principles into concrete instruments. These include the GuIA – Guide to Artificial Intelligence, developed to support public-sector entities while also being designed to serve as a reference and model for the private sector.
The tool makes it possible to assess AI projects across five dimensions — accountability, transparency, explainability, fairness and ethics — with the aim of ensuring that the systems used can be understood, audited and assessed, and that they include mechanisms to prevent discrimination and bias.
The Portuguese intervention also highlighted the National Artificial Intelligence Agenda, which brings together more than 30 initiatives and foresees public investment of over €400 million, including €25 million dedicated to the adoption of AI in Public Administration, as well as the adoption of the Portuguese Charter of Human Rights in the Digital Age.
However commendable the work Portugal has been carrying out at national level may be, national action alone is not sufficient when dealing with a technology whose development and impacts transcend borders, Maria do Céu Patrão Neves stressed.
“Artificial Intelligence is a global challenge and, as such, requires global approaches and cooperation at a worldwide level.”
It is precisely the search for such an international response that lies at the heart of the 4th UNESCO Global Forum on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, which is taking place in Riyadh until 17 September and brings together governments, international organisations, experts, companies and civil society to discuss governance models capable of keeping pace with a technology evolving at unprecedented speed.
