LISBON - Portugal unveiled its first open-source artificial intelligence model on Wednesday, joining a continental push for digital sovereignty. The foundation model, named Amália after fado legend Amália Rodrigues, was developed by a national consortium of universities and research institutions.
The initiative, backed by the government and €5.5 million in EU recovery funds, is not a consumer chatbot. It is a base technology for public institutions, banks, telecoms, and researchers to build tailored AI applications, reducing reliance on U.S. technology providers.
"Europe's strategic autonomy is today, perhaps more than ever, tied to AI," Prime Minister Luis Montenegro stated. "This model will enable us to face the coming decades with greater sovereignty and less dependence."
The project is built on Portuguese high-performance computing infrastructure, specifically the Deucalion and MareNostrum 5 supercomputers. Initial applications include a virtual museum guide, AI tools for naval decision support, a teaching assistant, and a digital assistant for public services. The model, its training data, and source code are released under an open-source license.