Alberto Granados (Madrid, 1965) For two years, he was the president of Microsoft Spain, which will enter the Aragonese territory with a billion-dollar investment. Open a leading data storage campus in Europe. These will be the memory and foundation of pioneering generative artificial intelligence that is called upon to break established patterns and revolutionize the relationship between humans and technology. You are invited to read the article at Ejea de Los Caballeros about the ban on using mobile phones for IES Reyes Católicos students. This makes this center the first non-mobile training ground in all of Aragon.
What are you thinking?
Technology needs to be implemented correctly and have a positive impact on education and students. You need to know how to use it responsibly, it needs to be regulated and it needs to be humane, inclusive and empathetic. When used well, it allows you to use Minecraft (a famous video game); so children with Down syndrome or autism can simulate everyday activities such as taking the bus or buying bread.
Is it out of control?
We were talking about university professors going on strike in the 70s to prevent the use of calculators in classes. When a German jeweler invented the printing house in 1450, the Ottoman Empire banned the printing house. It is already known which regions are most developed.
If there is reluctance to use mobile phones in an institute, how can there not be reluctance to use artificial intelligence?
To find out how people use technology, we created a report called the Microsoft Work Trend Index, which includes 30,000 companies. We have a digital debt, we are addicted to using more communication tools rather than creative ones. 57% of respondents use their time to use email, Teams or make video calls; This makes it less time consuming to create, like using Word, Power Point or Excel. AI will allow us to rebalance it because it will digest information that consumes our time without providing much value. We use the concept of co-pilot; This implies that the AI is not replacing you, but that there is someone who adapts to the context and suggests the question you should ask.
“Artificial intelligence will challenge humans, and that’s something that’s always very good for them.”
What will it be used for?
We will have more time to create. A doctor will have more time to spend with the patient, or a student will be able to develop a critical spirit. It will be like a teacher giving an exam with books. That’s where you had to work the hardest, use the most common sense, and apply the most judgment. But be careful what you ask from AI, it can give you that: the question is whether our brains are ready to absorb this creativity.
Is it ready?
It is very good that human beings are protected. Whenever something like this has happened in history, people have responded well. When photography emerged, there was a movement that criticized it as the end of art and portraiture. That’s when impressionism, abstract art or cubism emerged, perhaps in art’s most creative century.
“SMEs are the biggest pending issue. It will be beneficial when we mobilize the industrial fabric of not only large companies but also SMEs. We cannot allow anyone to be left behind.”
Do you understand that there is fear? For example, job loss.
I don’t think it’s perceived that way. In the survey I mentioned earlier, 43% of employees said they had certain reservations about using productive AI, but 70% said they would delegate tasks, including tasks that involve creativity. What we started is the co-pilot concept and it has amazing results: productivity levels increase by 70% and sales increase. In Spain, 41% of companies with more than 250 employees already use them.
The Aragonese and Spanish business ecosystem is dominated by SMEs, and it seems that AI cannot cross the threshold of medium-sized companies.
SME is the biggest pending problem. The benefit will come when we mobilize the industrial fabric of not only large companies but also SMEs. We can’t let anyone get left behind. Our goal is to democratize productive AI. I’m talking about being uncomplicated to use, intuitive, opening up Microsoft Teams tomorrow and our co-pilot giving you a summary of the call you just hung up or suggesting the next question you should ask the customer you just hung up on. Open. . That’s why we are part of IndesIA, an association that promotes the use of data in the Spanish industry, and we have 500 partners in Aragon.
More fear. What do you think about what’s happening at OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT and is experiencing a political earthquake this week?
We have a solid partner with them. We are very proud of the relationship we have built with Sam Altman and his team, our relationship has never been better and we will continue to work with them. I quote our CEO as saying that he is very happy to see Altman return to OpenAI. We have a very close relationship as we support all their innovations with our cloud, which we also share with them. We also share the idea that AI should be responsible, and that was one of the reasons why we partnered with them. At the top of their mindset is the fundamental principle that everyone should be responsible for AI. Our commitment is to protect data, and we always think that AI should have human nature, ethical responsibility guidelines that we make available to governments but that we regulate ourselves.
Some of the crew reportedly said they were going too fast, even posing a threat to humanity. Can you give them credit?
It needs to be regulated just as it is regulated. With very specific examples: We implement technology that allows us to use your voice, record it, and produce content as if you were speaking. We reserve this, we need to request authorization for every project, because it can have negative effects if used incorrectly, imagine if it was used to imitate a person’s voice. Another example: ALS patients who will lose their voice, and we can preserve it. Were we really not going to use this technology? I believe that generative AI will have a brutal impact on humanity because we are talking about an increase in GDP of approximately 4.4 trillion euros worldwide.
Microsoft has just announced that it will go to Aragon with an investment of around 2.2 billion. Why Aragon?
Aragon’s infrastructure is magnificent in terms of land, energy and water. There is also a fundamental aspect: the industrial fabric that already exists in Aragon, where it is easy to find developed, talented and willing companies. There is talent, thanks to the good level of universities, and almost the most remarkable thing, there is a very important public-private cooperation. It is commendable that the Government of Aragon professionally assists such multinational companies.
We don’t know how important this data campus is to Microsoft’s scale. Where can we place this on the scale of multinationality?
One of the most important in Europe. We are talking about a very large data region. When we say region, we mean more than one data center. And that’s as far as we can count.
Will they be simple data warehouses? There are discordant voices that doubt the direct influence of these centers and think that this is illuminating.
This isn’t anything we haven’t done before. We have over 300 data centers in 60 regions. Last year, we opened a data center every three days and we have a lot of experience in these centers. We also know the positive impact it has on the ecosystem. I am talking about an ecosystem because a data center responds to the need for computing, digitalization, artificial intelligence and the projects behind it. All of this creates an ecosystem of partner companies that provide direct and indirect employment to university students. We have approved a study in which 62,000 jobs are expected to be created across Spain between 2022 and 2025 in the region we opened in Madrid. We did a very similar study for Aragon and we are talking about 69,000 jobs within the ecosystem across Spain. There will be about 2,100 in Aragon.
It’s hard to believe such large numbers.
But these are studies that we have approved in other regions and other countries. These are not projections; They happened because we needed more people; 46% of digitalization projects cannot find the employment we need. And of course, in a country where youth unemployment is so high and full of projects that cannot find people… For this reason, we are actively working with the Ministry of Vocational Education and National Education, and we will work to have training plans for specialization here, too. at Microsoft. This is a cascade, a virtuous effect in creating employment.
“Artificial intelligence will be like taking an exam with books. This is where you use your common sense the most.”
Google opened its own Cyber Security center in Malaga. Will Microsoft make Aragon an expert in any of these subsectors?
It’s too early to know. Yes, I can say that there is a great demand for digitalization of industrial or financial processes and artificial intelligence. We’re not just opening up a data region here to accommodate storage and compute. We work with Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Azure 365, Power Platform, and all clouds and their cybersecurity elements require multiple expertise. Aragon should target the strong: logistics, automotive, finance, precision agriculture…
It would be good if qualified employment was central here, right?
That’s what I think too. Aragon can create a talent center that will serve all of Southern Europe, thus making it possible for many companies to need qualified personnel in the field of information and artificial intelligence, and if European projects are taken up from there, it could be very interesting. Aragon needs to think big about the opportunity before us.
In just two years, the Zaragoza environment has become the kingdom of data. What will your relationship be like with Amazon Web Services, which opened its region a year ago?
I’m very proud that this happened. The fact that we have large companies investing in our country is a very good sign that gives confidence. It is also very positive that Aragon suddenly finds itself between two major technology companies. We are united by a common interest, we want to invest in this region and develop it, and I think this is very good.
Data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity and water. Can it be controlled?
Environmental commitment is one of our highest priorities. We are achieving the goals we set: to be emissions neutral by 2025, to be negative by 2030, and to return all the CO2 we have produced since the company was founded in 1975 by 2050. I say this over and over because no other company has been this successful. wet. We invest in improving our data centers to consume the minimum required, to concentrate applications on fewer servers or to make cooling sustainable. –
But is it sustainable for us to continue producing this much data at today’s level?
When we move any data center from a private company to our cloud, we achieve 98% efficiency. The fact that private data centers are built that don’t reach the level of efficiency achieved by large hyperscalars like ours probably makes it pointless.