The recent launch of ALIA by the Government of Spain has put our country on the map of artificial intelligence. If you are self-employed or run an SME, here we tell you everything you need to know about this model and how it can help you.
What is ALIa?
ALIa (Artificial Language Intelligence Assistant) is the first foundational model of artificial intelligence in Spanish and co-official languages (Catalan, Galician, Valencian and Basque). Designed as a public and open source tool, its objective is to democratize access to AI and adapt to the linguistic and cultural context of Spain.
Can ALIA be used now?
Yes! ALIA is now available. You can access the model and explore its capabilities from its official website: alia.gob.es.
Where is the model, does it have a repository on GitHub?
For now, ALIA is accessible through its official website, but it has not yet been confirmed whether it has a public repository on GitHub. The project promises transparency and adaptability, so it is likely to be available on more platforms in the future.
In Hugging Face are the weights: https://huggingface.co/BSC-LT/ALIA-40b
The repository with the scripts and data sources is supposed to be on GitHub, but either the link is wrong or it is still closed: https://github.com/langtech-bsc/alia
Salamandra scripts are available: https://github.com/langtech-bsc/salamandra
Is there only one model? What do they look like?
Yes and no. Let’s see them
- ALIA-40b is the largest. 40 billion parameters. It is a foundational model. That means that it does NOT respond to commands or instructions like ChatGPT, but completes sentences or text. We could consider it medium compared to the latest models from Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, etc.
- Salamandra-7b has 7 billion parameters. It is not new, but it is also trained by the same team. It is an SLM actually, in fact a car named SLM like Microsoft’s Phi-4 has twice as many parameters (14B).
- Salamandra-7b-instruct. It is the same size as the previous one, but this one behaves as a “small ChatGPT”.
- Salamandra-2b. With 2 billion parameters it is a very small model. It cannot be considered useful if used in a generalist way, but it is good if it is re-entered in more concrete tasks.
- Salamandra-2b-instruct. The version that has been over-trained to respond to instructions.
Is it a foundational model or a fine-tuning of an existing one?
ALIA is a foundational model developed from scratch, specifically designed to work in Spanish and co-official languages. This allows it to offer more accurate and relevant responses in our language and in local contexts, differentiating it from models such as ChatGPT, which are mainly trained in English.
Here is more information about the data (datasets) used: https://langtech-bsc.gitbook.io/alia-kit/datasets/datos-y-herramientas-para-modelos-de-texto
How can I use ALIA now?
Access alia.gob.es for:
- Integrate it into your business processes.
- Customize it according to your business needs thanks to its open source design.
- Test your applications in tasks such as customer service, content generation and administrative automation.
In addition, the government is conducting pilot tests, such as a chatbot for the Tax Agency or medical applications to improve diagnostics, showing ALIA’s potential in key sectors.
How does ALIA help freelancers and SMEs?
1锔忊儯 Time and resource optimization: From customer service to document creation, ALIA can automate routine tasks and free you to focus on what’s important.
2锔忊儯 Local adaptation: ALIA is trained in Spanish and co-official languages, which makes it perfect for businesses operating in regional contexts.
3锔忊儯 Affordable access: As a public project, it promises to be more affordable than other proprietary AI solutions.
4锔忊儯 Custom automation: Companies can tailor ALIA to specific tasks, such as answering frequent queries or managing workflows.
5锔忊儯 Ethical and regulatory compliance: Designed under European Union regulations, ALIA guarantees transparency and security in its use.
馃挰 What do you think about ALIA and how do you think it could help you? Leave us your comments or contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.
