Authors: Estevadeordal, Antoni ; Beliz, Gustavo ; Estevez, Elsa ; Ovanessoff, Armen ; Plastino, Eduardo ; Rao, Anand ; Diamond, Peter ; Barral, Welber ; Petrus, Gabriel ; Donaldson, Dave ; Vashistha, Avinash ; Vashistha, Ankita ; Herrera, Marcos ; Heymann, Daniel ; Mira, Pablo ; Chesñevar, Carlos ; Lakhani, Karim ; Tinn, Phil ; Lin, Michael ; Ascencio, Luis ; González Ramírez, Rosa ; Atkinson, John ; Núñez Tabales, Julia ; Caridad y Ocerín, José ; García Moreno, María ; Siri, Julián ; Serur, Juan ; Miailhe, Nicolas ; Lannquist, Yolanda ; Mulgan, Geoff ; Lavista, Juan ; Corvalán, Juan ; Pounder, Kate ; Liu, Geoffrey ; Chelala, Santiago ; Korinek, Anton ; Schapira, Débora ; Reif, Rafael ; Gillam, Michael.
Executive Summary
More or less consciously, we all inhabit a new planet: Algorithmland. It is the cyber-physical space in which trillions of data points move at hyperspeed and are analyzed by increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) systems that, through algorithms, generate learning and self-learning processes with an exponential impact on industry, trade, services, and multiple facets of our collective lives.
Drawing on the contributions of more than 40 renowned global experts, this INTAL-IDB report examines the risks and opportunities presented by intelligent machines in areas that are highly relevant to Latin America’s productive profile and global integration. These range from the possibility of predicting trade negotiations, commodity prices, and consumer trends, to applications in algorithmic factories, personalized medicine, expanded education, prototyped infrastructure, autonomous e-mobility, precision agriculture, energy consumption, judicial case management, macroeconomic analysis, and the ethical and social equity challenges posed by these technologies.
We are at the dawn of a technology that is emerging as a new factor of production. Artificial intelligence, guided by a wise and renewed humanistic vision, can help consolidate a predictive and inclusive model of Regional Integration for all Latin Americans.
The main findings are summarized below:
- AI constitutes a new factor of production in which Latin America must invest in order to increase economic growth rates and foster a 4.0 model of regional integration.
- Trade techno-diplomacy, powered by deep learning and next-generation big data, can energize current trade negotiations and strengthen strategic participation in global value chains.
- AI enables the construction of more sophisticated scenarios for predictive regional integration through an innovative set of forward-looking analytical tools.
- A cognitive infostructure based on AI—or intangible 4.0 infrastructure— offers an opportunity to bridge Latin America’s physical connectivity gap.
- AI is emerging in the region amid a 39% risk of job automation, presenting challenges and opportunities that must be recalibrated through a humanistic lens.
- Cobotization, understood as the convergence of AI and new “digital workers,” is generating a growing and urgent demand for workforce reskilling and professional retraining.
- AI applied to global services represents both a value-added and diversification challenge for a region specialized in tasks that are potentially codifiable.
- Collective intelligence supported by algorithms requires preventing an AI “rebellion” by anticipating the ethical risks associated with the management, analysis, and production of data.
- A governance model based on neural networks and AI for social well-being can promote the equitable distribution of digital dividends.
- Building a Latin American AI brand is essential, grounded in strategic priorities that capture innovative advantages and enable the diversification of the region’s productive structure.