The president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has advocated for strengthening the rules that regulate artificial intelligence (AI) to prevent the digital environment from becoming "a lawless jungle." He did so during a new session of the High-Level Dialogue on the protection of children's rights against Artificial Intelligence, in which he participated alongside the leaders of France, Kenya, and Australia, co-chairs of the coalition along with Sánchez.
"A digital world without rules is not a playground, it is a lawless jungle," warned the head of the Executive in his initial intervention, in which he emphasized that, although AI offers great possibilities in fields such as health research, it also entails "enormous risks."
Among those risks, he denounced that "some techno-oligarchs concentrate power and wealth, shape values and preferences," driving a technology that "exacerbates problems such as cyberbullying, hate, sexual crimes, or loneliness."
In this line, he stressed that "companies must be held accountable for the impact of their activities on minors" and that "they cannot privatize profits and socialize costs."
Sánchez also highlighted the Spanish government's initiative to set the minimum age for access to social networks at 16 years, a decision already implemented in Australia and which France has tightened by establishing it at 15 years.
The proposal has received the support of the present leaders. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, stated that "protecting children online is a fundamental public health priority, a fact proven and documented by scientists around the world."
"We defend and share this priority with the same commitment regarding artificial intelligence," he added, urging not to "repeat the mistakes of the past and wait twenty years to see the impact of chatbots on minors."
Within the framework of the High-Level Dialogue, Macron stated that "AI should not be available to children without first being tested, evaluated, and therefore authorized," and announced a new meeting in November "at the Paris Forum to take the next step."
For his part, the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, warned that "as AI capabilities advance, so do the risks, and also the need to collaborate internationally" to be able to guide it "instead of letting it shape us."
At the same time, the president of Kenya, William Ruto, has reminded that "for many African children, access to technology means access to education, knowledge, healthcare, and new opportunities." For this reason, he has insisted that the response "cannot be to deny them this access," but rather "to expand it" and achieve "that technology is safer (...) so that every child can learn, create, and participate while being protected from any harm."