Chile Launches Latam-GPT Open-Source AI

Chile has launched Latam-GPT, an open-source artificial intelligence model developed by the Chile===Chilean National Center for Artificial Intelligence. This initiative aims to combat biases prevalent in US-centric AI platforms by utilizing millions of data points collected across Latin America, thereby showcasing the continent's cultural diversity. President Gabriel Boric and Science Minister Aldo Valle emphasized the importance of this project for regional technological sovereignty. Latam-GPT, funded primarily by the CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean and the Chile===Chilean National Center for Artificial Intelligence, was developed for $550,000. It is currently trained in Spanish and Portuguese, with plans to incorporate Indigenous Latin American languages. While experts like Alejandro Barros acknowledge its limited budget prevents direct competition with major AI models like ChatGPT or Google's Gemini, entrepreneurs such as El Cuarteto de Nos and his company Digevo see significant value in its ability to understand local slang and idioms for region-specific applications, such as customer service.