Chile: AI Strategy and Action Plan

National AI Strategy and Action Plan

In April 2020, the Science Ministry (MinCiencia) published the National AI Strategy and Action plan.

Chile’s National AI Policy aims to position the country as a leader in Latin America and a global competitor by 2031. By leveraging AI, Chile strives to enhance productivity, enable innovation, and promote a society centered on inclusivity, ethics, and sustainable development.

Table of Contents

  1. Executive Summary

  2. Introduction

    • What is Artificial Intelligence?
    • What role does AI play in our society?
    • What will be the impact of AI on our future?
    • Why does Chile need this AI Policy?
    • How was this policy developed?
    • How is this AI Policy organized?

  3. Objective, Principles, and Axes of the National AI Policy

    • Objective
    • Principles
      1. AI focused on human well-being, human rights, and security
      2. AI for sustainable development
      3. Inclusive AI
      4. Globalized AI
    • Axes

  4. Axis 1: Enabling Factors

    • 1.1 Development of Talent
      • Objective 1.1.1: AI in the school system
      • Objective 1.1.2: AI in technical-professional education
      • Objective 1.1.3: Upskilling and reskilling workers
      • Objective 1.1.4: AI specialization in higher education
      • Objective 1.1.5: Increasing AI experts (Masters/PhDs)
      • Objective 1.1.6: Aligning talent development to future needs
    • 1.2 Technological Infrastructure
      • Objective 1.2.1: Chile as a global technological hub
      • Objective 1.2.2: Expanding connectivity and quality standards
      • Objective 1.2.3: Building storage and computing infrastructure
      • Objective 1.2.4: Infrastructure for future demands
    • 1.3 Data
      • Promoting open and high-quality data
      • Ensuring data security and governance

  5. Axis 2: Development and Adoption

    • Research and Development (R&D)
    • Industry Adoption of AI
    • AI for Public Services
    • Innovation and Entrepreneurship

  6. Axis 3: Ethics, Legal, Regulatory, and Socioeconomic Impacts

    • 3.1 Ethics
      • Transparent and explainable AI
      • Ethical frameworks to avoid discrimination
    • 3.2 Impacts on Work
      • Mitigating job displacement and workforce automation
    • 3.3 Consumer Relationships
      • AI in protecting consumer rights
    • 3.4 Intellectual Property and Industrial Ownership
    • 3.5 Cybersecurity and Cyberdefense
    • 3.6 Gender and Inclusion

  7. Glossary

  8. References

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is defined as a set of computational techniques that allow machines (e.g., computers, smartphones) to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as reasoning, learning, and decision-making.

1.2 What Role Does AI Play in Our Society?

AI has rapidly become embedded in daily life and societal operations. Examples of AI applications include:

  • Daily Activities:
    • Navigation apps suggesting optimal routes.
    • Streaming platforms recommending movies and music.
    • Smart assistants responding to voice commands.
  • Healthcare: AI enables early detection of diseases through advanced diagnostics.
  • Astronomy: Analyzing astronomical data to identify supernovas or planets.
  • Public Services: Governments use AI for improving program evaluations, fraud detection, and citizen services.

The widespread adoption of AI has been fueled by:

  • Explosive growth in data availability.
  • Enhanced computational power.
  • Advances in machine learning algorithms.

1.3 What Will Be the Impact of AI on Our Future?

The economic and social impacts of AI are profound. According to studies:

  • Economic Growth: AI could increase the global GDP by 14% by 2030.
  • Regional Disparity: Latin America is projected to receive only 5.4% of this growth, highlighting the need for urgent action.
  • Productivity Gains: AI is expected to revolutionize industries, driving innovation and efficiency.

Despite its benefits, AI adoption also raises challenges for emerging economies like Chile:

  • Digital Divide: Unequal access to AI and technological tools may exacerbate inequalities.
  • Labor Market Disruption: Automation of tasks may displace certain jobs, requiring workforce reskilling.

Global Positioning:
Chile ranks 47th globally in AI readiness but has an opportunity to improve its standing by investing in:

    • Talent development.
    • Infrastructure expansion.
    • Ethical governance frameworks.

1.4 Why Does Chile Need this AI Policy?

Chile recognizes AI as a strategic enabler for national development. Key motivations for adopting a National AI Policy include:

  1. Economic Opportunity:

    • AI could increase Chile’s growth rate by 1 percentage point for every 3 points of GDP growth by 2035.
    • Industries like mining, agriculture, and energy can benefit from AI-driven innovations.

  2. Social Development:

    • AI can improve public services, health systems, and education.
    • Addressing inequalities through ethical and inclusive AI practices.

  3. Regional Competitiveness:

    • As one of Latin America’s most digitally connected countries, Chile aims to lead the region in AI adoption.

  4. Global Commitments:

    • Chile aligns its goals with international standards such as the OECD AI Principles, which emphasize fairness, transparency, and accountability.

Chapter 2: Objective, Principles, and Axes of the National AI Policy

This chapter outlines the core vision of Chile’s National AI Policy, the principles that guide it, and the strategic axes that structure its implementation over the next decade.

2.1 Objective

The overarching goal of the National AI Policy is:

“To position Chile as a global leader and regional reference in AI, fostering a robust ecosystem of research, development, and innovation that drives sustainable development and improves citizens’ quality of life.”

Key Focus Areas:

  • Strengthening AI capabilities in academia, industry, and the public sector.
  • Aligning AI development with principles of responsibility, sustainability, and opportunity.
  • Encouraging global collaboration while addressing Chile’s unique challenges and opportunities.

Insight: This ambitious objective sets a clear target for Chile to lead Latin America in AI by 2031 while ensuring societal well-being and sustainable progress.

2.2 Guiding Principles

The policy is built on four transversal principles that ensure AI development aligns with Chile’s values and priorities:

  1. AI Focused on Human Well-being, Rights, and Security

    • AI must improve people’s quality of life while respecting human rights and ensuring safety.
    • Systems must avoid discriminatory biases, ensure transparency, and protect critical infrastructure.

  2. AI for Sustainable Development

    • AI should drive economic diversification, boost productivity, and promote environmental sustainability.
    • Development of AI solutions must balance technological progress with social and environmental considerations.

  3. Inclusive AI

    • AI must address inequalities, particularly for vulnerable groups, women, indigenous communities, and persons with disabilities.
    • Special focus is placed on gender equity, regional inclusion, and the protection of children and adolescents.

  4. Globalized AI

    • Chile will align with international AI standards (e.g., OECD Principles) while adapting strategies to its unique national context.
    • Chile aims to participate actively in global AI discussions and collaborations, ensuring that its local realities are considered.

2.3 Strategic Axes of the Policy

The policy is structured into three interconnected axes, addressing Chile’s AI development from foundational needs to societal impacts:

  1. Axis 1: Enabling Factors

    • Focuses on the essential elements required for AI development and adoption.
    • Key Components:
      • Talent Development: Building digital skills, education programs, and specialized training to close the talent gap.
      • Technological Infrastructure: Expanding high-quality connectivity, data centers, and computational resources.
      • Data Ecosystem: Ensuring open, high-quality, and secure data that supports AI innovation.

  2. Axis 2: Development and Adoption

    • Aims to foster innovation, research, and the integration of AI into industries, public services, and entrepreneurship.
    • Key Focus Areas:
      • Encouraging R&D in AI to drive technological advancements.
      • Promoting AI adoption in businesses and government for improved efficiency and service delivery.

  3. Axis 3: Ethics, Legal, and Socioeconomic Impacts

    • Addresses the societal and ethical challenges of AI development and deployment.
    • Key Themes:
      • Ethics: Ensuring transparency, fairness, and accountability in AI systems.
      • Labor Market Impacts: Supporting workers through reskilling and addressing job displacement.
      • Cybersecurity: Safeguarding AI systems from threats and vulnerabilities.
      • Inclusivity: Closing gender and socio-economic gaps to ensure equitable AI benefits.

Insight: The three axes work together to create a strong foundation (Axis 1), foster innovation and deployment (Axis 2), and mitigate societal risks (Axis 3), ensuring Chile’s AI growth is sustainable, ethical, and inclusive.

Chapter 3: Ethics, Legal, Regulatory, and Socioeconomic Impacts

This chapter addresses the critical challenges and opportunities that arise from the deployment of AI in Chile. It focuses on the ethical, legal, and regulatory frameworks needed to govern AI, as well as the broader socioeconomic impacts on areas like labor markets, consumer protection, and inclusion.

3.1 Ethics

AI systems must be developed and implemented with transparency, accountability, and fairness to avoid harm or discrimination.

Key Focus Areas:

  • Transparency and Explainability: Ensuring that AI decisions are interpretable, particularly in high-impact areas (e.g., healthcare, legal systems).
  • Bias Mitigation: Addressing algorithmic bias to prevent discriminatory outcomes against marginalized or vulnerable groups.
  • Human-Centered AI: AI systems must prioritize human well-being and align with ethical standards.

3.2 Impacts on Work

AI adoption will transform the labor market, automating certain tasks while creating new opportunities.

Key Challenges and Responses:

  • Job Displacement: Workers in repetitive or routine tasks are at risk of displacement.
  • Reskilling and Upskilling: Policies must focus on training and preparing workers for new roles in an AI-driven economy.
  • New Jobs: AI will create demand for roles like data scientists, AI developers, and ethics experts

3.3 Consumer Relationships

AI’s integration into services and products raises concerns about consumer rights and protection.

Key Areas of Focus:

  • Transparency: Consumers must understand how AI systems make decisions, especially in areas like financial services and retail.
  • Protection from Harm: AI systems must be free from deceptive practices that could exploit consumers.
  • Data Privacy: Protecting consumer data is essential for building trust in AI systems.

Insight: Clear regulations are needed to ensure AI improves consumer experiences without compromising fairness or privacy.

3.4 Intellectual Property and Industrial Ownership

The growing role of AI in creating innovative solutions raises questions about ownership and intellectual property (IP):

  • AI-Generated Creations: Addressing whether creations produced by AI systems can be patented or copyrighted.
  • Protecting Innovations: Chile must develop clear frameworks to protect intellectual property rights while encouraging innovation.

3.5 Cybersecurity and Cyberdefense

AI introduces new vulnerabilities and risks to digital infrastructure, requiring robust cybersecurity measures:

  • Protecting Critical Infrastructure: Safeguarding AI systems used in essential services (e.g., energy, healthcare, transportation).
  • Defense Against Cyberattacks: AI can be used to both launch and defend against cyber threats.
  • Data Security: Ensuring AI systems comply with strict data protection and privacy standards.

Chapter 4: Enabling Factors

This chapter highlights the foundational elements required for the successful deployment and development of AI in Chile. These elements include talent development, technological infrastructure, and data ecosystems. Together, they form the backbone that enables AI innovation and adoption across sectors.

4.1 Development of Talent

Talent development is critical to fostering an AI-ready workforce and ensuring Chile can lead in AI research, innovation, and implementation.

Key Focus Areas:

  1. AI in Schools:

    • Reforming school curricula to include skills like programming, computational thinking, and digital literacy.
    • Developing educational resources to train teachers and prepare students for a digital future.

  2. Technical and Vocational Training:

    • Integrating AI and digital skills into technical-professional programs.
    • Reskilling and upskilling the current workforce to adapt to AI-driven changes.

  3. Higher Education and Research:

    • Expanding AI-specialized programs in universities, including undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels.
    • Promoting interdisciplinary learning where AI intersects with law, ethics, and business.

  4. Expert Retention and Attraction:

    • Increasing Chile’s pool of AI experts by aligning with OECD standards for research talent (e.g., producing more Masters and PhDs).
    • Encouraging international collaboration and creating incentives for AI researchers to work in Chile.

4.2 Technological Infrastructure

Robust infrastructure is essential to support AI development, deployment, and adoption. This includes ensuring widespread access to high-speed internet, computational resources, and data storage.

Key Focus Areas:

  1. Connectivity:

    • Expanding access to high-quality internet, particularly in rural and underserved areas, through initiatives like 5G deployment and national fiber-optic projects.
    • Enhancing connectivity for universities, research centers, and public institutions.

  2. Chile as a Technological Hub:

    • Positioning Chile as a global hub for technological infrastructure in the Southern Hemisphere.
    • Attracting investment in data centers and fostering partnerships for regional digital projects, such as undersea fiber-optic cables linking Asia and Latin America.

  3. Data Storage and Computing:

    • Building infrastructure for high-performance computing and secure data storage to support AI training and innovation.
    • Leveraging Chile’s “natural laboratories” (e.g., astronomy and Antarctic research) to develop AI solutions with global relevance.

  4. Anticipating Infrastructure Demands:

    • Implementing ongoing assessments to anticipate future infrastructure needs and address emerging technological gaps.

4.3 Data

Data is the cornerstone of AI development. Ensuring quality, availability, and security of data is essential for fostering AI innovation in Chile.

Key Focus Areas:

  1. Open and Accessible Data:

    • Creating reliable, high-quality, and publicly accessible data repositories to encourage AI research and development.
    • Promoting data-sharing models between government, private organizations, and academia while ensuring data privacy.

  2. Data Governance:

    • Establishing clear frameworks for data security, privacy, and ownership to build trust in AI systems.
    • Strengthening laws and regulations to prevent the misuse of personal or sensitive data.

  3. Data for the Public Good:

    • Encouraging the use of data for solving societal challenges, such as improving public health, transportation systems, and urban planning.
    • Supporting AI applications that address national priorities, like education, agriculture, and environmental management.

  4. Data Infrastructure:

    • Expanding storage capabilities and data processing centers to meet increasing demands for AI development.

Development and Adoption

This chapter focuses on fostering AI research, development, and deployment across Chile. It highlights the role of academia, industry, government, and society in driving AI adoption and ensuring it creates value for the economy, public sector, and citizens.

5.1 Research and Development (R&D)

Promoting AI research and development is essential for Chile to remain competitive and innovative.

Key Focus Areas:

  1. Basic and Applied Research:

    • Encouraging interdisciplinary research to explore new AI techniques and applications.
    • Strengthening partnerships between universities, research institutions, and industry.

  2. Funding for Innovation:

    • Increasing public and private investment in AI R&D to support cutting-edge innovation.
    • Promoting grants and incentives to encourage the creation of AI solutions with local and global applications.

  3. International Collaboration:

    • Fostering partnerships with global AI research hubs to bring expertise, resources, and investment into Chile.

5.2 Industry Adoption

The chapter emphasizes the need for Chilean industries to adopt AI technologies to improve productivity, efficiency, and competitiveness.

Key Focus Areas:

  1. Supporting Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs):

    • Providing tools, incentives, and training for SMEs to adopt AI solutions and improve operations.
    • Encouraging industry-specific AI applications, such as agriculture, mining, energy, and manufacturing.

  2. Innovation and Entrepreneurship:

    • Supporting startups and tech entrepreneurs to develop AI solutions.
    • Creating incubators and accelerators focused on AI-driven businesses.

  3. Technology Transfer:

    • Promoting collaboration between academia and industry to ensure that research outcomes translate into practical AI applications.

5.3 AI in the Public Sector

The government plays a critical role in driving AI adoption to improve public services and policy-making.

Key Focus Areas:

  1. Modernizing Public Services:

    • Implementing AI solutions to improve efficiency, accuracy, and accessibility in areas like healthcare, education, and public safety.
    • Using AI for data-driven policy-making to address societal challenges effectively.

  2. Citizen-Centric AI:

    • Enhancing citizen services through AI-powered tools (e.g., chatbots, automated responses).
    • Increasing transparency and public trust in AI solutions used by the government.

  3. Digital Transformation:

    • Promoting AI adoption within government agencies to streamline administrative processes and reduce costs.

5.4 Promoting Innovation Ecosystems

Creating a supportive ecosystem is essential for driving AI adoption and fostering collaboration among key stakeholders.

Key Focus Areas:

  1. Strengthening Collaboration:

    • Encouraging partnerships between academia, industry, and government to accelerate AI development and deployment.
    • Creating platforms for knowledge exchange and joint projects.

  2. Innovation Hubs and AI Centers:

    • Establishing centers of excellence to serve as incubators for AI research, innovation, and commercialization.
    • Supporting regional hubs to ensure AI development benefits all regions of Chile.

  3. Start-up and SME Support:

    • Providing incentives and infrastructure to enable AI-focused start-ups and SMEs to thrive.

 

Chapter 6: Ethics, Legal, Regulatory, and Socioeconomic Impacts

This chapter delves into the broader societal implications of AI deployment, emphasizing the need for robust ethical frameworks, legal and regulatory policies, and strategies to mitigate socioeconomic challenges. The focus is on ensuring that AI development in Chile aligns with human rights, inclusivity, and sustainable economic growth.

6.1 Ethics

AI must be developed and implemented responsibly, ensuring transparency, accountability, and fairness.

Key Focus Areas:

  1. Human-Centered AI:

    • AI systems must prioritize human well-being, ensuring they are beneficial, inclusive, and do not cause harm.
    • Avoiding the creation or reinforcement of societal inequalities.

  2. Bias and Fairness:

    • Mitigating algorithmic biases to prevent discriminatory outcomes, particularly for vulnerable groups.

  3. Transparency and Explainability:

    • Promoting clear and interpretable AI systems to build public trust, especially in critical applications like healthcare, education, and security

6.2 Legal and Regulatory Framework

AI adoption raises new legal and regulatory challenges that require updates to existing frameworks to ensure its safe and effective use.

Key Focus Areas:

  1. AI Governance:

    • Developing policies to ensure AI systems comply with international standards (e.g., OECD AI Principles).
    • Establishing mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating AI systems.

  2. Consumer Protection:

    • Creating safeguards to protect individuals from harmful AI outcomes, such as deceptive practices or privacy violations.

  3. Data Privacy and Security:

    • Strengthening data protection laws to ensure personal data used in AI systems is secure and handled ethically.

  4. Intellectual Property (IP):

    • Updating IP laws to address challenges related to AI-generated innovations and creations.

6.3 Socioeconomic Impacts

AI adoption will have profound effects on Chile’s economy, labor market, and society, requiring proactive policies to mitigate risks and maximize benefits.

Key Focus Areas:

  1. Impact on the Labor Market:

    • Job Displacement: AI and automation may replace certain roles, particularly repetitive and manual jobs.
    • Reskilling and Upskilling: Prioritizing workforce training programs to prepare workers for AI-driven roles and emerging industries.
    • New Job Creation: AI will generate demand for roles in data science, AI development, and system oversight.

  2. Inclusion and Gender Equity:

    • Ensuring AI benefits historically marginalized groups, including women, indigenous communities, and individuals with disabilities.
    • Addressing gender gaps in STEM education and AI development to promote diversity.

  3. Regional Development:

    • Promoting equitable AI adoption across Chile’s regions to reduce geographic disparities and ensure shared benefits.

6.4 Cybersecurity and Cyberdefense

AI introduces new cybersecurity challenges that must be addressed to protect critical infrastructure and data.

Key Focus Areas:

  1. Securing AI Systems:

    • Ensuring AI systems used in critical sectors (e.g., healthcare, transportation, defense) are resilient to cyberattacks.

  2. Data Protection:

    • Implementing strong cybersecurity measures to protect sensitive data used by AI systems.

  3. AI for Cyberdefense:

    • Leveraging AI to detect and respond to cyber threats in real-time, strengthening national security.