This month is celebrated the 500th anniversary of the birth of the most famous portuguese poet, Luís Vaz de Camões. For that reason, the Lisbon Metro signed a partnership with Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (Portugal's National Library), so Metro travellers can have easy access to his poetry. Lisbon Metro placed posters with QR codes that allow you to listen to excerpts from Camões' most emblematic poems, performed by actor André Gago. This initiative invites customers to rediscover the richness of Camões' work during their daily journeys. https://24.sapo.pt/vida/artigos/poesia-de-luis-de-camoes-tambem-vai-andar-no-metro-de-lisboa

Because there is crime in Portugal (it's not a paradise...), I'll place some ocasional news about the subject here. Seven people were convicted to prison (7Y9M to 16 years) for a total of 36 robberies. They robbed houses, with old folks inside, and businesses, perpetrated in the districts of Coimbra and Aveiro in early 2022.https://www.jn.pt/3644566357/sete-dos-15-arguidos-do-caso-teia-dourada-condenados-a-prisao/

I was looking at some data from the United States Social Security Administration about recipients of benefits outside of the United States, and I found something interesting. In December, 2025, there were 12,185 people receiving retirement benefits from the [U.S.] Social Security Administration in Portugal.. This was an increase of 7.27% from December, 2024 and was the highest rate of increase since the pandemic. The countries in Europe with more people receiving Social Security retirement benefits are the United Kingdom (28,027), Germany (23,769), Poland (20,655), Italy (15,506), France (13,254) and Greece (13,093). I'm taking a deeper dive into the data to see if I can get some more insights.

Olá bom dia, alegria! Tudo bem? Thanks to @Abdul Alim for the reminder about Portugal’s pioneering open-source AI model for European Portuguese - AMALIA (of course!). AMALIA, in this instance, stands for Assistente Multimodal Automático de Linguagem com Inteligência Artificial and is the first large language model (LLM) specifically developed for European Portuguese. This fully open-source project brings together around 60 researchers from institutions like NOVA FCT, Instituto Superior Técnico and others. Its goals include promoting linguistic accuracy in public administration and business, preserving cultural elements such as proverbs and national heritage, ensuring data sovereignty (keeping sensitive information within Portugal), and boosting national AI research and innovation. Find out more here. (It’s still largely an academic/specialist tool rather than a simple “search box” resource.) When thinking about Portugal’s AI efforts, I was reminded of a more everyday tool: Evaristo.ai - a Portuguese chatbot designed to help citizens navigate digital public services, among other things. It was developed by the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Sciences in partnership with ARTE. Try it here. And finally, for the AI sceptics and haters (I used to be one!), here’s a reminder that it’s just a tool or a toy. It can be genuinely helpful, but also indulgent and tacky. My own defensive use case is a diagnostic tool I created for www.vamosbem.pt. It helps with that overwhelming feeling we can get when thinking about the things we might prefer to avoid - “How ready are you for a medical emergency?” (Answer 10 quick questions and get a personal action plan for living and aging well in Portugal). Try it for yourself HERE - bearing in mind it’s a beta prototype, not for commercial release.

"Mais vale saber que haver e dar que receber" It is better to know than to have, and to give than to receive