Mexico Leads the Way in Artificial Intelligence in Latin America

By Goodrich, Riquelme y Asociados

Artificial intelligence (AI) can contribute greatly to transforming development models in Latin America and the Caribbean to make them more productive, inclusive and sustainable, but reflection, a strategic vision, regulation, and regional and multilateral coordination are needed to harness its opportunities and minimize its potential threats.

These are the conclusions drawn in the first Latin American Artificial Intelligence Index, which was launched on August 11, 2023, at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago de Chile.

It is a pioneering study that reveals the state of AI in 12 of the region’s countries: Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Uruguay, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama and Brazil.

The Index, known as ILIA,  was developed by Chile’s National Center for Artificial Intelligence (CENIA) with support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the CAF-Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Organization of American States (OAS), in addition to technical assistance from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Stanford University’s Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI). 

It takes into account the region’s material, social and cultural context and analyzes five dimensions: enabling factors (elements that are necessary for a robust AI system to be developed in a country); research, development and adoption; governance (the degree to which the institutional environment has been developed); perception (prevailing topics on social networks and digital media); and foresight (academic trends and expert views on the social impact).

Mexico exhibits a mature and solid AI ecosystem and ranks fifth due to its outstanding performance in research, specifically in the registration of patents related to AI: Mexico and Brazil account for nearly 95% of artificial intelligence patents in Latin America. 

Given its increasingly huge influence on human actions and interactions, AI has became an area of public interest in Mexico. In 2017 the government, with support of strategic actors from civil society, private sector, academia, and international cooperation, decided to develop the first AI strategy for the country and Latin America. Since then, the country has looked to design proactive policies to ensure that AI is used to address collective aspirations with a person-centered approach in fields as diverse as medicine, the military and biodiversity.

The goal certainly represents a challenge for intellectual property. While IP can underpin economic growth by incentivising investment, safe-guarding assets and enabling the sharing of know-how in technologies like AI, questions are raised, for example, about the balance in the copyright system between the protection of human works and AI works. Several governments have taken actions to consult the population on how far copyright and patents should protect inventions and creative works which are made by AI. 

The future of AI and intellectual property is uncertain, but it is clear that this technology will have a significant impact on the way we think about and protect intellectual property. It is important to continue to research and develop solutions to the challenges posed by AI, so that we can ensure that this technology is used for good and not for harm.