When Xabier Uribe-Etxebarría began working in artificial intelligence in Spainthe generative AI was neither expected. Moreover, virtually no one outside the world of technology or research knew what AI consisted of. But Xabier Uribe-Etxebarría was already working in his progress and getting the most possible. But not at any Price, since he is a firm defender of the ethical use of AI, and promoter of the known as a technocratic oath.
Born in Algorta (Bizkaia), Uribe-Etxebarría is an entrepreneur specialized in innovation and artificial intelligence. Has founded several companies, among which are the Anboto groupy BestFarmers.eco (Project to give visibility to sustainable producers with chef Eneko Atxa), in addition to the Summit web event. He is also a mentor at the Saïd Business School at Oxford University. But for what is most known, almost more internationally than in Spain, it is because it is the founder and CEO of the artificial intelligence company Sherpa.AI.
Uribe-Etxebarria began his higher studies at the University of Deusto in Bilbao, where he studied industrial technical engineering with the specialty of Electronics, and Higher Engineering of Industrial Organization. He subsequently completed his formation at MITAgement School of the MIT and in the Harvard Business School, in the United States. He also studied at the Tec de Monterrey, in addition to obtaining an MBA in business innovation at Deusto Business School.
Grupo Anboto, the first of its companies, was born in 2009. Specialized in online customer service, already used as a basis for operating the natural language process, and in the 2010 edition of Innovate! It was recognized as the best startup in the world. In 2011, Uribe-Etxebarria launched Sherpa Summit Bilbao, a meeting in the capital of Bizkaia in which technology experts shared their knowledge with assistant entrepreneurs. For their different editions they passed from Tim Berners-Lee to Steve Wozniak and Michelle Baker.
Sherpa.ai, the company of the most leading Uribe-Etxebarría
The following year, 2012, it starts Sherpa.ai. The company is born In order to apply AI to increase humansand is dedicated above all to the creation of digital assistants who use predictive and AI techniques, many years before the companies dedicated to large -scale AI designed for the general public made an appearance. Among his first creations is the Assistant Sherpa Next, which became standard in several models of Samsung’s smartphones.
Without making a lot of noise, Sherpa.AI evolved and incorporating famous names of people of weight in the world of advanced technology. As Tom Gruber, creator of Siri, whom Uribe-Etxebarría incorporated the company as a counselor. He also incorporated Joanna Hoffman, an expert in marketing and who in her day was very close to Steve Jobs.
In addition to the assistant, in Sherpa.AI they have developed several more advanced assistants and platforms, and currently counts among their clients with. AND During the pandemic, Uribe-Etxebarría collaborated with his company with the Basque Governmentdeveloping a prediction system so that those responsible could predict the need to have UCIS and be able to plan their availability.
The technology they are currently developing in Sherpa.AI focuses above all on facilitating companies and organizations from different sectors to apply the AI while keeping their sensitive data safe, and currently remains in the middle of the development phase.
Awards and distinctions
Xabier Uribe-Etxebarría has been reaping awards for several years. Also Sherpa.ai, considered as one of the 100 most innovative in AI and digital assistants by Fortune Ai 100 and CB Insights in 2018, by Analytics Insights in 2019 and by Datamation in 2020.
In 2010, Uribe-Etxebarría was recognized by Mit Technology Review magazine as one of the T35 Spain, that is, as one of the best innovators under 35 of the moment. In 2012 he entered the Yearbook of El País of the 100 most influential characters at the time in Latin America. In 2018 and 2019 he also entered the Choiseul 100 list, which recognizes those considered as leaders of the future under 42 years.
One of the latest awards received by its company Sherpa, considered one of the most revolutionary in the use of AI in sectors such as the health and the world of the business, has been that of the European Scaleup of 2024, granted by the jury of the Organization and Scientific Committee of the Congress of the III European Form of Artificial Intelligence, held in Alicante last October.
But the recognition of the company, in this case, also entails recognition to its creator for its ethical vision of AI. He believes that privacy should be a human rightand as we have mentioned, it is the driver of the technocratic oath, which according to the country is based on the Hippocratic oath of medicine, and defines the “ethical commandments” of those who work in data analysis or neurotecnology.
Among other things, this oath states that knowledge will not be used to damage people and that those who subscribe will seek the consent of those who have trusted them, and respect their will. He also points out that those who welcome him will not violate «the privacy of confidential information of individuals«, In addition to maximizing«The transparency of algorithms»That they believe and use.
Xavier Uribe-Etxebarria is, therefore, apart from an entrepreneur and an artificial intelligence expert, a activist for the right to privacy of data and for transparency in the development of algorithms.
In addition, it does not forget its roots, since although with Sherpa.AI it has made the leap to the United States, it continues to maintain one of the company’s offices and headquarters in the Biscay town of Erandio. And he has a vision of the future of AI that seems to have little in common with many of the great names of the world of artificial intelligence today. Already in 2021 he declared in a report in GQ that «When the machines believe wealth on themselves, we will have to worry that this wealth is equally distributed«.
Photo: Alberto Espada
