The only Spanish expert on the UN Panel for AI compares it to the atomic bomb

San Sebastián.- Román Orús, the only Spaniard among the forty independent experts selected from over 3,000 candidates to join the UN's International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence (AI), compares the impact of this new technology to "the birth of the atomic bomb". «AI is almost the new 'Manhattan Project'. And when a technology of this caliber and with this capacity arises, it cannot simply be left unchecked,» he explains in an interview with EFE, after his recent appointment as a member of this prestigious panel that will help the UN formulate public policies related to artificial intelligence, and in which his presence is expected at the meeting scheduled in Madrid for this Wednesday. Orús is an Ikerbasque professor (Basque Foundation for Science) at the leading Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) and scientific director of Multiverse Computing (the Spanish company specializing in quantum computing and AI), both located in San Sebastián. From his knowledge and experience, the expert recalls that artificial intelligence is a "totally transversal" technology that "is changing society as we know it." We recommend reading: The UN panel is made up of experts from countries such as the United States, Canada, South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Egypt, Senegal, Australia, Chile and Brazil, among others.

New Industrial Revolution

«We must consider that we are in a new Industrial Revolution», he maintains with the same conviction with which he defends the need to adopt measures that guarantee that this «powerful» technology is used to «avoid wars» and «do good». A goal that "at heart is the role of the UN" and what motivated its birth as an organization, he explains. "I want to understand that this is for the benefit of humanity and not to destroy us all," continues Orús, guided by a "scientific optimism" that prevents him from giving up on the goal of international legislation to regulate this area in all countries. "Just because it's thought to be difficult doesn't mean you should stop trying," it states at a time when all these systems are still in an emerging mode. "It's something people don't quite understand because it seems like a wonderful technology with which you can do almost anything, but deep down we are in the Stone Age of AI," he warns.

Egyptian Chariots Before Christ

«The models we have are like the cars that existed in Egypt thousands of years before Christ compared to the ‘Enterprise’», insists Orús, who reveals that, «however advanced these algorithms may seem, they are actually very primitive and consume a huge amount of energy». There is "much to improve" in the technical field, "both at the software and hardware level", he acknowledges, with an eye on a nature that, in his opinion, does it "much better than us, because biological intelligence is infinitely more efficient" than artificial intelligence. «You don't have to put a child next to a nuclear power plant for them to learn to speak, and they do. However, for an AI model, it may be necessary to invest more than a billion euros in the electricity bill and -then- it still has 'hallucinations'», he exemplifies.

Spain «is doing things very well»

Although he acknowledges that countries like China and the U.S. have taken the "lead" over Europe in artificial intelligence, the Spanish scientist believes that this is not an obstacle for Europe to also advance in this field. Even in some areas that others are not yet considering, such as "AI nanomodels for devices" that your company, Multiverse Computing, is already deploying in drones and satellites. At this point, it does not hide that the ambition of its company is to become "the leader in Europe in AI and quantum computing and one of the world's leading, if not the most powerful." A field in which Spain is seen with the capacity to lead, because in recent years it "is doing things very well" in the field of emerging technologies, where quantum is also found and for which it is necessary to "continue betting" because, although it seems that in the short term they do not provide benefits, they are the ones that in the long term "are going to change the world". Thus, things that a few years ago seemed impossible are now a reality in tangible applications, as is the case with "quantum metrology"; a technology that, according to reports, was recently used in Iran by the US military to rescue one of its pilots, whom it managed to locate after remaining hidden for two days in a crack in the ground thanks to "a quantum sensor so sensitive as to detect the variations in the electromagnetic field generated by the heartbeats". "If your heart beats they find you," it warns.