An artificial intelligence model developed to understand the multicultural reality of the region will launch in mid-2025, the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence of Chile (CENIA) said on Thursday.
The project, christened LatAmGPT and coordinated by CENIA, has the support of more than 30 institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean, and more than 60 experts from the region, according to the centre.
“When we talk about artificial intelligence, it has to project to the world that we are, its diversity. And in the case of Latin America, not only to speak Spanish or Portuguese, but to understand our idiosyncrasies, to contribute with our culture and our vision of the world,” said Chilean Minister of Science Aisén Etcheverry, quoted in the press release.
Unlike other closed models, “LatAmGPT will be open, which means that it will allow more people in Latin America and the Caribbean to study, use and improve it, to build on it.”
The software’s name makes reference to ChatGPT, the conversational robot developed by US company OpenAI.
“It is important that here we can develop capacities to gain some independence and make decisions on how this technology impacts society,” said Álvaro Soto, director of CENIA, a Chilean organisation that is partially publicly funded and made up of several universities.
“So far we do not have a regional language model, and this task cannot be taken on by just one group or just one country: it is a challenge that requires the effort of the whole region,” said Soto, quoted in the press release.
Universities, foundations, libraries, governmental entities and civil society organisations have joined this work.
The alliance brings together institutions from Chile, Uruguay, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Spain, the United States, Argentina and Costa Rica.
It has “managed to gather more than 8 TB (terabytes) of information in plain text, which is equivalent to millions of books,” the statement said.
This information will be managed by the Supercomputing Centre at the University of Tarapacá in northern Chile, which is building infrastructure for AI development.
Etcheverry added that they want the tool to operate under “strict ethical frameworks,” without elaborating on the regulations that will govern LatAmGPT.
— Times/AFP
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