Bernardo Correia spoke at the opening of the Anacom conference “Artificial Intelligence: The Challenges of Innovation and Regulation,” taking place at the Museu do Oriente in Lisbon.
“After many studies, much consideration, and much discussion, we intend to appoint Anacom as the main market oversight authority and focal point for AI regulation in Portugal, thus ensuring a preferential contact point and coordinator for businesses and citizens, concentrating regulatory and technological capacity and the necessary resources for this function,” stated the official.
“This decision is also weighed by Anacom’s extensive experience as a market regulatory entity in the technological field, contributing to a solid and predictable environment and, especially in recent years, the constructive and dialogic role that Anacom has managed to have with the sector,” explained Bernardo Correia.
This regulatory area “is especially important for us to explore the potential of artificial intelligence, and therefore, it is a cornerstone of our plan for this area,” added the Secretary of State, noting that AI “is not the future, it is the present.”
Bernardo Correia argued that AI “must serve people, be ethical, auditable, free from biases, supporting decisions and not replacing human judgment” and considered that “Portugal should not fear the use of artificial intelligence.”
“We should fear other countries taking better advantage of artificial intelligence than us and becoming more competitive as a result of that decision-making,” he added.
The Secretary of State emphasized that the Government is finalizing “the National Agenda for Artificial Intelligence,” aligned with the European Framework for Trustworthy AI.
In this context, he continued, “we are working with various entities in the execution of the AI Act for the National Legislative Framework Report, favoring a pragmatic approach, focused and not deviating from the spirit of the original text of the European regulation, once again seeking to convey clarity and predictability to the Portuguese business fabric.”
