Chile’s National Center for Artificial Intelligence (CENIA) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) presented on Tuesday, September 24, 2024 the results of the 2nd edition of the Latin American Artificial Intelligence Index (ILIA 2024), a study led by CENIA that this year evaluated the situation in 19 of the region’s countries, measuring each one’s level of preparation in relation to artificial intelligence (AI). Of the ILIA’s maximum number of points (100 points), Chile obtained the top spot in the ranking, with 73.07 points, followed by Brazil (69.30) and Uruguay (64.98).
Other countries in the region follow in the “adopters” category. These include Argentina (55.77), Colombia (52.64) and Mexico (51.40).
According to the study, even though the region has doubled the percentage of AI talent concentration in the workforce on average over the last eight years, no country has reached the levels that countries from the Global North had at the start of the same period.
The three countries deemed pioneers in AI (Chile, Brazil and Uruguay) have not only made progress on implementing AI-based technologies, but are also orienting their national strategies towards the consolidation and expansion of these technologies in all the sectors of their economy and society. Furthermore, they have a conducive environment that fosters the research, development and adoption of technologies, promoting innovation and the application of AI.
The Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation of Chile, Aisén Etcheverry, indicated: “Having an index of this kind helps us move forward with sound policies and is critical for the success of these strategies. (...) Soon those who will be voting are not going to get information door-to-door or from what they read in formal media outlets, but instead from social media content. For young people, the future they imagine is full of fears about how AI will replace them. That is the level of change and the digital transformation we are all talking about. We are proud to be in a good position, which means that as a State we have prepared. The challenges are infinite and having a tool like this is fundamental.”
“The new technological revolution, marked by artificial intelligence, has the potential to become a key driver for overcoming the development traps in which Latin America and the Caribbean is mired. AI can foster innovation and address key challenges in health, education and the environment. AI can optimize governments’ administrative processes, improve decision-making and better meet citizens’ demands. But it can also widen preexisting socioeconomic gaps if we don’t act quickly and decisively, especially in terms of investment, infrastructure, education, computing capacities and regulation,” said ECLAC’s Acting Deputy Executive Secretary, Javier Medina Vásquez.
“For the European Union, the EU-Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Digital Alliance has become one of the central pillars of our Global Gateway strategy in the region. The EU-LAC Digital Alliance promotes our two regions’ joint interest in a digital transformation model centered on human beings. Artificial intelligence is a priority issue for this alliance and the focus of one of the high-level bi-regional policy dialogues on digital matters, which will take place in November of this year in Santiago along with the eLAC Ministerial Conference. The expansion of the AI index being launched today is a clear, concrete example of cooperation between the EU and LAC in terms of digitalization,” the Ambassador of the European Union in Chile, Claudia Gintersdorfer, emphasized.
Meanwhile, Rodrigo Durán, manager of CENIA, highlighted among the main findings of the 2024 study that “the incorporation of generative AI tools into the work done by people who perform the 100 most important jobs in Chile, who represent 5.69 million workers, could mean an increase of 1.21 percentage points of current growth, equivalent to USD$3.381 billion.”
Durán further indicated that while the development of human talent specialized in AI has increased in Latin America and the Caribbean, we are still far below the northern hemisphere’s figures. There is also a draining of talent that is not retained in the region, with the exception of Costa Rica and Uruguay, which have been able to attract more talent than what they have lost. “The three countries that stand out most in terms of Human Talent are Chile (74.3), Uruguay (62.11) and Costa Rica (46.99),” Durán sustains.
The three pioneer countries have shown maturity on the dimensions studied: Enabling Factors; Research, Development and Adoption; and Governance. In overall terms, they are notable for their efforts in key areas such as technological infrastructure, specialized talent development, scientific productivity and innovation capacity.
The Research, Development and Adoption dimension, for example, shows an average of 47.41 points among 19 countries. The score of Brazil (79.15), Chile (75.36), Uruguay (66.89) and Mexico (66.18) points to the advanced capacities that these four countries have regarding this aspect. It is clear there are ample opportunities for improvement in the rest of the countries that obtained low scores in this area, whether due to scant investment in AI or a lack of incentives.
With regard to scientific development in artificial intelligence, the ILIA observed a growing number of multidisciplinary publications associated with AI, reaching a total of 80% in the region. Around 70% of the publications are concentrated in 10 fields, led by clinical medicine.
In terms of infrastructure, the leaders are Uruguay (67.90 points), Chile (67.58) and Costa Rica (55.86), while on data availability Brazil (53.64) and Uruguay (50.77) stand above the rest. Finally, the countries with high computational capacity (those with a score above 35 points) are Costa Rica (51.11), Chile (45.81), Uruguay (41.92) and Argentina (37.68).
With regard to the impact of AI as a driver of development and regional entrepreneurship, the ILIA 2024 shows that the most industrialized and competitive countries in the global market, such as Mexico and Brazil, have better rates of patenting, high-tech workers, unicorn companies and manufacturing of cutting-edge technology. In countries like Chile, Uruguay and Costa Rica, the study observes better levels of entrepreneurial environment, private investment and the emergence of startups.
With regard to AI governance, Chile has shown a high level of development through public policies that go beyond specific governments, which promote a long-term strategic vision for adopting artificial intelligence technology in an ethical and responsible way, in addition to a regulatory framework that provides legal certainty and clear guidelines for implementing AI in the public and private sectors.
The study also highlights the opportunity posed by AI in terms of the conversion and diversification of countries’ production matrix, since the adoption of AI technologies can foster innovation in sectors such as green energy, advanced manufacturing, agro-industry and financial services, creating new high-value-added business and employment opportunities.
Remaining challenges in the region
Chile, like other countries in the region, faces challenges in terms of women’s equitable participation in AI research and development, which requires the implementation of policies with a gender approach. In addition, although the importance of AI is recognized in Chile, the country must maintain a sense of urgency to continue allocating resources and efforts to the research, development and implementation of this technology in all the country’s key areas, the study suggests.
About the launch event
The ceremony launching the second edition of the Latin American AI Index featured the participation of the Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation of Chile, Aisén Etcheverry; ECLAC’s Acting Deputy Executive Secretary, Javier Medina Vásquez; the Ambassador of the European Union in Chile, Claudia Gintersdorfer; and authorities from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the CAF-Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean and UNESCO, along with specialists and actors from the AI ecosystem in Latin America.
The event included a talk by international expert Nestor Maslej, a research manager at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), creator of the “AI Index,” a global barometer that measures the pulse and progress of AI. “I think this year the index has taken a major step forward, since it is much broader and seems to include more indicators and more countries. It is important that you continue in the future to ensure as broad a coverage as possible, because the broader the coverage, the more meaningful and impactful the results will be (…) it is crucial that the actors, whether politicians or business leaders in the region, clearly understand where we are now and what we can do to advance and improve,” the expert emphasizes.
At the event, three successful cases of practical AI applications in various areas – led by Google, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft – were presented: the “Humboldt Cable,” which represented significant progress on connectivity for Chile; “Plu,” a chatbot that offers AI tools to teachers and students in Brazil; and the “Guacamaya Project,” for the monitoring, conservation and protection of Colombia’s Amazon region.
Some comparative findings of the 2024 study:
● Chile stands out as the regional leader in AI with high investment in technological infrastructure, training programs, and supporting policies, obtaining high scores on all the index’s dimensions.
● Chile leads the way on the sub-indicators of publications on AI and on the number of active researchers, which is far above the regional average.
● Uruguay follows Chile on various dimensions, also standing out in terms of infrastructure and human talent, which positions it among the region’s pioneers.
● Brazil is notable for its technological infrastructure and research and development capacities, although it faces challenges on governance.
● Mexico performs well on research, development and adoption of AI, but shows weakness on governance.
● Countries like the Dominican Republic and Peru have a good governance level, but face challenges on research, development and adoption of AI technologies.
● Panama is the leader on production of open source, surpassing countries like Uruguay and Costa Rica.
● Brazil and Mexico stand out on the number of unicorn companies and on rates of patenting, reflecting a more consolidated environment for innovation.
