Pedro Sánchez demands responsibility from techno-oligarchs for the impact of AI on minors

Pedro Sánchez has decided, in line with other progressive leaders in the world and the advice of other influential former leaders such as Barack Obama, that the control of artificial intelligence will be one of the axes of his speech. The Spanish president already started the week in Madrid with this issue and in New York, in a specific session on the risks of artificial intelligence for minors with the leaders of France and Australia, he raised the tone against the “techno-oligarchs” who are directing the process without thinking about its social consequences, especially for minors. With Emmanuel Macron at his side, who like him has also opted to prohibit social networks for those under 16 years of age and regulate AI, Sánchez has been clear: “I say something very simple to the techno-oligarchs, above their business are our children.”

Sánchez recovers one of his central ideas in recent years, which he already took to the Davos Forum: the need for the owners of these companies to be responsible for the consequences of their technology. "Companies must be held accountable for the impact of their activities on minors. They cannot privatize the benefits and socialize the costs, especially when we talk about the mental health of our children. We must set limits, seek responsibility, cooperation, AI must work for humanity, not against it. We need an alliance between governments, companies, educators, families," he insisted.

Sánchez has started with an image in everyone's mind, the moment from 2001, A Space Odyssey, in which the computer HAL, designed to help humans, rebels against its creators and tells the protagonist, "I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that." Sánchez believes that the time has come for the world to say "I'm sorry, AI, I'm afraid we can't allow you to do that. Not without limits, not without protecting what makes us human."

His entire speech is increasingly focused on the emergency of controlling the power of the four people who are running the large AI companies and with them perhaps the destiny of the world. "Techno-oligarchs claim that we are at the gates of the era of abundance. But today we see the risks. AI aggravates problems such as cyberbullying, hate, anxiety, loneliness. They themselves are alerting us to the risks, we all have the obligation to pay attention. Especially when these risks affect our children and adolescents."

The Spanish president offers some significant data. "European minors spend up to 6 hours a day in front of a screen. One in 3 admits to regularly encountering inappropriate content. The PISA report has detected the general decline in educational performance, attributable in part to AI. Sexual abuse material generated by AI has gone from 5,000 cases detected in 2023 to 1.3 million in 2025. A digital world without rules is not a playground, it is a lawless jungle, a failed state. We must all do more”, he concluded.