The 10th AI & Big Data Congress has showcased the potential of generative artificial intelligence across a range of sectors and applications over the course of a conference which has additionally unpacked sustainability and the impact of its legal regulation in Europe from the standpoint of the businesses, organisations and individuals who use it coupled with ethical issues.
“The development of data science and artificial intelligence has been nothing short of spectacular in the last few years,” commented Joan Mas, director of CIDAI and scientific director of Eurecat’s Digital Area. “In 2015 we were in the hype of big data, a technology that has matured over time and has become increasingly mainstream and embraced in business strategy.”
In lockstep, “over the last decade we have seen the growth of machine learning and analytical AI and how deep learning-based applications have enabled dramatic progress in areas such as medical diagnostic support, computer vision and speech technologies,” he added, noting that “since 2022, generative AI has been in the spotlight of expectations.”
At its tenth anniversary edition, the AI & Big Data Congress, held today and tomorrow at L’Illa Auditorium with more than 1,600 registered attendees, brings together over thirty artificial intelligence experts who will address the multi-sector impact of this technology and the challenges in its application.
“Catalonia is fast becoming a leader in Spain and Europe in developing artificial intelligence and the Catalonia.AI strategy driven by the Catalan Government in partnership with ecosystem stakeholders has made a major contribution to this,” said Maria Galindo, Secretary for Digital Policies of the Government of Catalonia. “We are thus reasserting our commitment: to continue moving forward by supporting the triad of research, industry and public policy.”
“The development of methodologies which make generative artificial intelligence available to players such as SMEs, which seemed out of the game, is evident,” noted Daniel Altimiras, chair of Eurecat, who also reiterated that Eurecat “is a partner for the ecosystem in successfully developing AI-based solutions.”
Rika Nakazawa, recently recognised as one of the 50 most influential women in the United States by Forbes magazine’s ‘50 over 50’ list and currently Global Head of Business Innovation at the NTT DATA Group, pointed out that one of the primary drivers for the sustainability of artificial intelligence is to “leverage AI to help organisations achieve their specific sustainability goals, whether in the deployment of solutions or in operational productivity, security and efficiency metrics.”
“By integrating cutting-edge innovations in data centres, fully photonic networks and space-based solutions, we can reconcile energy concerns around the growth of artificial intelligence applications.”
Furthermore, “strategic cross-industry partnerships bringing together policy, technology and industry stakeholders ensure that our developments are contributing to the imperatives where sustainability and smart technologies meet.”
Ana Freire, Vice-Dean for Social Impact and Academic Innovation at the UPF Barcelona School of Management, shared innovation initiatives and strategies for industry, education and academia to equip workers for the fast-paced changes brought about by artificial intelligence since around 40 percent of global occupations are expected to be significantly impacted by these technologies.
In relation to this challenge, Freire believes that “collaboration between industry and academia is the best strategy to embrace this technological disruption” in which workers “have to be trained to gain new skills or upgrade existing ones, particularly in areas related to AI such as data analytics, programming and technology management.”
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the AI & Big Data Congress, the lifetime scientific achievements of Ramón López de Mántaras, emeritus professor of the CSIC at the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA) which he founded and directed, have been recognised. A pioneer of artificial intelligence in Catalonia, Spain and Europe, he underscored the crucial role of regulation and education to ensure that artificial intelligence’s potential can be harnessed responsibly in view of the challenges posed by its application in terms of privacy, algorithm bias and inequality.
In his view, “the more sophisticated AI systems become, the more accountability we should require of their designers and programmers to ensure that they comply with rigorous legal and ethical principles. Artificial intelligences do not have, and never will have, intentionality or goals of their own; their development involves people at all stages from the conception and design of the algorithm to its implementation, training and rollout. We are the moral agents, not the machines. If something goes wrong, it’s not the algorithm that’s to blame; it’s us.”
In addition, to mark the tenth anniversary of the congress, awards were presented to several Catalan businesses and institutions that have stood out for their use of AI over the last ten years. During this period, the AI & Big Data Congress has attracted more than 7,000 attendees, scheduled almost 400 presentations and brought world-class speakers to Barcelona.
The congress on artificial intelligence and big data in the business sector, organised by the Centre of Innovation for Data Tech and Artificial Intelligence (CIDAI) and coordinated by the Eurecat technology centre as part of the Artificial Intelligence Strategy of Catalonia, Catalonia.AI, powered by the Government of Catalonia through the Secretariat for Digital Policies in the Ministry of Business and Labour, is sponsored by the Government of Catalonia, CaixaBank Tech, Huawei, NTT DATA, Softeng, Telefonica Tech, Inetum and Minsait. The AI & Big Data Congress is supported by Barcelona City Council, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, the Computer Vision Center, the i2CAT Foundation, the Intelligent Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Research Center (IDEAI) at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia – BarcelonaTech (UPC), Microsoft, SAP and the SDG Group.
