The Government has approved a bill to regulate artificial intelligence (AI). The aim is to make the most of the benefits provided by artificial intelligence, in order to improve people's lives and to ensure safe and responsible development, establishing rules that ensure a balance between the benefits of new technologies and the risks associated with their misuse or harmful use. It also introduces general principles and specific provisions to support the use of new technologies to improve people's lives and promote social cohesion, with a focus on risk management based on a human-centred perspective.

The Bill focuses on five areas: national strategy, national authorities, promotion, copyright and criminal sanctions. Provision is made for a delegation of powers to the government to align national legislation with the EU Regulation, e.g. for the education of citizens on AI and professional training, as well as for the revision of criminal laws relating to the misuse of AI systems.

The Bill also deals with AI in the purely health-related field, prohibiting discrimination in the access to health services and guaranteeing the right to be informed about the use of AI. AI is promoted for the purpose of inclusion and accessibility of persons with disabilities, without compromising medical decision-making, prescribing that systems and data must be reliable and up-to-date to minimise errors.

The Bill also declares data management by non-profit organisations engaged in therapeutic and pharmacological research using AI to be of public interest.

Provision is also made for regulations on the electronic health record and digital health, and an IA platform, managed by Agenas, is established to support territorial healthcare. The platform will offer assistance to healthcare professionals for the management of patients, supporting doctors in their daily clinical practice with non-mandatory suggestions and facilitating patient access to the services of healthcare facilities.