According to Latin American Artificial Intelligence Index, (ILIA 2024)1According to a recently published report, Argentina ranks fourth in technology adoption, with Chile, Brazil, and Uruguay leading the way. Argentina has a good combination of research, development, and adoption.2 and Governance. It would only need to improve the “Enabling Factors” to position itself in the group of leaders, a reflection that we will expand on in this article.
The development of this index is a collaborative effort by institutions and governments across the region, led by CENIA (Chile's National Center for Artificial Intelligence). It is a rigorous study that organizes the elements and variables influencing the development of AI ecosystems around three dimensions: Enabling Factors (40% relative weight), Research, Development, and Adoption (35%), and Governance (25%). It encompasses more than 70 sub-indicators that served as the basis for its construction, covering the situation in 19 Latin American countries. This study consults numerous external sources, providing an objective view of the current state of affairs and normalizing the data using Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or population, allowing the data to better reflect the relative situation and enabling more equitable and meaningful comparisons between the different contexts measured.
It boasts prominent partners such as the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services, as well as collaborators from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and four Chilean universities, among others. It aims to contribute to the development of AI in the region by highlighting for governments, universities, research centers, and the private sector the areas where they need to focus to achieve sustained growth in Artificial Intelligence development.
Based on the results of this index, we have conducted a SWOT analysis of AI in Argentina, highlighting the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities.
Argentina's strengths in the field of AI
Argentina is considered among the six countries with advanced AI governance: Chile (83.62), Brazil (82.38), Uruguay (69.43), Argentina (68.73), the Dominican Republic (63.32), and Colombia (62.62). Governance encompasses Vision and Institutional Framework, International Partnerships, and Regulation. It is noteworthy that Argentina has the National Artificial Intelligence Plan (PNIA), developed by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation (MINCYT) in 2019, which involves the government, industry, academia, and international partners to foster innovation and ensure that AI technologies maximize benefits and minimize harm. The strategic priorities of this plan include developing a regulatory framework, improving AI infrastructure, and focusing on ethical AI. At the same time, it is highlighted that the plan lacks an allocated budget and has experienced only partial public engagement (50 out of 100 points), a factor that underscores the commitment to its implementation. Regarding the institutional framework, it highlights the lack of spaces for inter-institutional coordination, while valuing the existence of an agency independent of the state. It acknowledges Argentina's international ties and its participation as an observer in the Ibero-American Data Protection Network, whose objective is to guarantee the protection of personal data in the region, promoting cooperation and the exchange of experiences among its members.
It recognizes Argentina's capacity to generate new knowledge, an aspect closely linked to the maturity of the local system for training and developing talent. Underlying this indicator is the degree of consolidation and relevance of the academic community in driving AI development, placing us just behind the leaders. It highlights the research centers and the proportion of female researchers.
Argentina also stands out in the Development of AI-based Applications, which allows measuring the level of technological innovation in a country, as it reflects the ability to transform advances in AI into practical solutions.
It has an acceptable level of adoption, which means that, at the industry and government level, there has been an effective assimilation of AI systems, considered essential to improve the competitiveness and sustainability of Latin American countries in the global landscape.
Regarding Enabling Factors, which measure the progress of those elements or conditions that constitute the starting point for AI ecosystems to develop effectively, we highlight the proportion of households with access to computers and the internet. We also emphasize the existence of secure internet servers and a robust High-Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure, which allows for the processing of large amounts of data and the execution of intensive calculations to solve complex problems in science, engineering, and business—an essential aspect for the development of AI and general technological development, as its applications are transversal to any discipline. At the same time, we highlight the existence of a good Internet Exchange Point (IXP) index.3 and highlights the population's English language skills as a good indicator.
Argentina's weaknesses in the field of AI
Argentina has weak infrastructure compared to the leading countries, primarily in terms of connectivity, evidenced by low average speeds for both fixed and mobile networks, which are below the Latin American average. Accessibility of connectivity devices is barely at the Latin American average and far below that of the leading countries. The analysis also highlights the lack of 5G deployments.
Regarding devices, it highlights the low accessibility of smartphones and the insufficient adoption of IPv64which limits the massive deployment of connected devices required by the digitization of industries and the Internet of Things.
Regarding Human Talent, it also has a low value in this indicator compared to several countries (Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Mexico, and Costa Rica) and is only slightly above the Latin American average. This indicator is comprised of:
Innovation and Development addresses current AI advancements in these areas and identifies key elements for future growth, including, for example, cross-sector collaboration and the fostering of an innovative environment. In this indicator, we are even below the Latin American average. It highlights insufficient incoming investment and its estimated value, the number of AI companies also below the Latin American average, and the existence of only one unicorn (UALA) compared to a total of 17 in Brazil. At the same time, it underscores the low score for Research and Development spending as a proportion of GDP, less than half that of Brazil and Costa Rica (0,53% vs. 1,17%). Regarding Development, we also obtain values below the Latin American average in the areas of Open Source Productivity, Open Source Quality, and Number of Patents.
It is also necessary to highlight the need to improve such an important aspect as cybersecurity. Argentina is positioned just above the Latin American average (51,88 vs. 49,95), below ten other countries, and with a significant gap compared to Brazil (100).
Opportunities and threats of AI in Argentina
We identified three main opportunities for AI development in Argentina. In the workplace, the integration of generative AI tools could accelerate the tasks performed by millions of workers. Specifically, a study was conducted to estimate the impact in Chile, which found that AI could improve efficiency and, in turn, increase GDP by 1,2 percentage points.
Argentina ranks fifth in AI adoption for economic activities involving the transformation of raw materials into finished products or the generation of goods and services, scoring 62,10 points compared to a maximum of 92,28 (Mexico and Brazil). This score indicates that the country has the conditions to leverage the benefits of AI application in industry.
El census of Biotechnology companies completed in 20236 The report identifies 340 companies, a figure that places Argentina among the top 10 countries with the most new businesses, and first in Latin America. This sector has experienced significant growth in recent years. In 2014, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MINCyT) identified 201 companies. AI can enhance this sector in several ways; for example, it can accelerate the development of new drugs, optimize genetic sequencing, improve the accuracy of diagnoses, and reduce costs in complex processes. Furthermore, machine learning tools can analyze vast amounts of biological data to identify useful patterns and predict outcomes, thus fostering innovation in biotechnology. It also facilitates the automation of experiments and laboratory analyses, allowing teams to focus on more strategic tasks.
Regarding threats, we highlight the loss of talent due to more favorable conditions found in other countries. The challenge lies not only in developing talent but also in retaining it. Argentina is identified among the countries with a negative talent flow in the area, meaning it loses more talent than it attracts.
We believe that the country's macroeconomic situation is negatively impacting the development of AI, especially affecting R&D.
A supplementary report to the index, included in the same study, which describes the AI job market in Latin America, analyzes the concentration of AI talent. It highlights that Argentina, despite having doubled its score and now ranking fourth, has not yet reached the level of the countries leading this indicator globally in 2016, and this gap could continue to widen. These are nations belonging to the Global North (Israel, Singapore, South Korea, Luxembourg, and Finland), characterized by significant industrial and technological development.
We conclude that the ILIA 2024 It is a valuable tool for defining public policies and understanding the current state of affairs in the private sector and education. At the same time, we identified a relatively low level of participation from Argentina, but with the potential to position itself among the leading countries in Latin America simply by improving some "Enabling Factors" that are currently very low even compared to the Latin American average.
