Chile leads Latin American Artificial Intelligence Index

For the second straight year, the report found that Chile continues to lead in the adoption and development of AI, excelling in infrastructure, specialized talent and research.

Chile, Brazil and Uruguay lead Latin America in use of artificial intelligence (AI). The region, however, is far from the development achieved by the United States or Europe, according to an ECLAC-supported report presented in Santiago.

For the second straight year, Chile leads the Latin American Artificial Intelligence Index (ILIA), which measures AI application in 19 countries.

Since 2023, Chile's National Center for Artificial Intelligence (Cenia) has drafted the report with support from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the European Union, private companies and universities.

The index considers elements including progress on AI research, innovation and adoption as well as the level of infrastructure, data and human talent development.

The results continue to rank Chile as the country where AI has advanced the most, with a score of 73.07 (out of a maximum of 100) followed by Brazil, with 69.3, and Uruguay, with 64.98 points.

National strategies and shortcomings

The three countries "stand out for their efforts in technological infrastructure, development of specialized talent, scientific productivity and innovation capacity," according to the research.

Chile, Brazil and Uruguay "have made progress on implementing AI-based technology and are focusing their national strategies on consolidating and expanding these technologies across all economic and societal sectors," said Cenia.

However, overall, in Latin America "there is a lot of desire and interest in technology, but there is no sense of urgency," said Rodrigo Durán, Executive Director at Cenia.

One of the region’s main shortcomings is its inability to develop and retain skilled AI professionals.

Although AI-specialized human talent development has increased in Latin America in recent years, the region in general is still "far below the figures for the northern hemisphere" and "there is a brain drain of unretained talent," Durán emphasized.

Source: DW.