The battle begins: White House’s executive order on AI
U.S. Government and the G7 vs. AI. The rise of AI in education in LatAm. LatAm's companies are investing in AI. U.S. and China race for Latin America’s semiconductors. The origins of AI.
The latest news and trends in the Latin American AI startup scene.
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Three things to know about the White House’s executive order on AI
The White House has issued an executive order on AI, outlining new rules and guidelines. The order focuses on transparency, labeling AI-generated content, and establishing standards. It requires AI companies to share safety test results and aims to improve AI safety and security.
However, the order lacks specifics on enforcement and relies on voluntary cooperation from tech companies. The reaction to the order has been mostly positive from major tech companies.
Some experts believe the order is a step forward, but others argue it doesn't go far enough to address the immediate harms of AI. The order is expected to have implications beyond the US and may influence global AI policy. (MIT Technology Review).
The rise of AI in education: The Leading Role of Edtech and Startups in LatAm
AI has the potential to revolutionize education in Latin America. A study shows that 70% of teachers in Mexico already use digital content, and they have noticed increased student motivation with the use of technology. However, the region still faces challenges such as limited internet access in schools.
Private sector representatives believe they can influence the implementation of AI in education. Some challenges include ensuring equal access, protecting privacy and data, avoiding bias and discrimination, adapting AI to the educational context, providing teacher training, and addressing ethical and responsibility issues.
EdTech startups are playing a significant role in integrating AI into education, with nearly USD$500 million invested in the sector in 2021. Local and emerging actors are seen as more influential than major international EdTech corporations. It is crucial to properly exploit data to benefit educational platforms and close the technological gap for more inclusive and personalized education in the region. (Contxto)
Quick News
The Mexican legaltech Ali won the Lawit Legal Tech Competition 2023
Ali, a legal tech startup founded in 2022, aims to improve lawyers' quality of life by optimizing tasks in law firms using artificial intelligence. The company specializes in analyzing, drafting, and reviewing legal documents, making it easier for lawyers to consult various sources.
Ali stood out in the Lawit Legal Tech Competition 2023 and has built trust with over 500 lawyers using its AI platform. The founder, Andrés Girault, highlighted the need for more trust in tech startups in Latin America.
He advised future entrepreneurs to focus on addressing real issues rather than falling in love with a specific solution. (Contxto)
500 Global selects startups for its Somos Lucha program
VC company 500 Global has announced the 12 startups selected for its Batch 19 program in Mexico City. Called Somos Lucha, the program offers investment and a 16-week intensive program to the selected startups.
The goal is to professionalize leaders and founders and prepare them for the capital-raising process. The startups come from Mexico, Colombia, and Chile, and operate in various industries including fintech, agtech, and healthtech.
Some of the selected startups include Dora, Healf, and Ziro. Somos Lucha has already invested over USD$39 million in more than 260 projects in Latin America. (Contxto)
MB Launches Mexico AI, Cloud, and Data Summit 2023
The Mexico AI, Cloud, and Data Summit 2023 brought together industry leaders to discuss the challenges of digitalization.
Panelists emphasized the importance of data quality and governance for effective decision-making. They also discussed the benefits of AI and data centers in driving innovation.
Experts highlighted the benefits of data lakes and cloud warehouses for storing and analyzing large datasets, but stressed the need for careful data curation. The summit also addressed issues related to data center resilience and the integration of edge and cloud technologies for IoT analytics. (Mexico Business News)
Latin American Companies Increase AI Investment
Organizations in Latin America are recognizing the potential of AI and planning to increase their investments in AI-powered tools. However, the region faces a lack of specialized talent, hindering the implementation of AI across different sectors.
The study shows that AI implementation in Latin America is slightly behind the global average, but a majority of companies have started their AI adoption journey and are interested in increasing their investments.
To address the talent shortage, companies are forming alliances with academic institutions and investing in training programs. Mexico and Colombia are leading in AI adoption, but there are concerns about AI regulation in Mexico that could limit its potential impact. (Mexico Business News)
Boosting Brazil's Semiconductor Industry: BRPTO's Active Participation and Government Initiatives
The Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BRPTO) recently hosted the ninth meeting of the Experts' Group for Semiconductor Technology (EGST) in Rio de Janeiro. The objective of the meeting was to discuss a new classification for semiconductors in the International Patent Classification (IPC).
Participants from several countries, including Brazil, Japan, Korea, the UK, the USA, France, and representatives from the European Patent Office (EPO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), attended the meeting.
The development of semiconductors in Brazil is of great importance, and the government is taking initiatives to support the sector, focusing on human capital, logistics, financing, legislation, and market access. The discussions aim to create new opportunities for technological and economic development in the semiconductor sector in Brazil, which can bring benefits to both the national and global economy. (Lexology)
U.S. and China race for Latin America’s semiconductors
Latin America has become a battleground for the US and China in their competition for dominance in the global semiconductor industry.
The US is seeking to decrease its dependence on Asian technological production by strategically relocating semiconductor manufacturing closer to home. However, China's presence in Latin America, particularly in the telecommunications and surveillance sectors, poses a challenge to US efforts.
China has made significant investments in the region and has established diplomatic ties with several countries, reducing Taiwan's influence. China's involvement in Latin America's technology and energy sectors is growing, and it has become a critical ally during the pandemic through vaccine diplomacy. The strengthening of diplomatic ties between China and Latin America has diminished the US's historical influence in the region. (The Dallas Morning News)
Pope Francis encourages more children to code, especially in Catholic countries
Polish tech entrepreneur Miron Mironiuk has launched the "Code with Pope" initiative, which aims to promote computer programming education for children worldwide.
The project has received endorsement from Pope Francis, and it hopes to address educational disparities by providing free online coding courses for students aged 11-15 in Europe, Africa, and Latin America.
Through 60 hours of learning, children will gain basic Python coding skills. The initiative aims to meet the increasing demand for tech skills and reduce the projected shortage of 85 million tech jobs by 2030. (BBC News)
G7 introduces voluntary AI code of conduct
The Group of 7 industrial countries (G7) has announced the International Code of Conduct for Organizations Developing Advanced AI Systems, a voluntary guidance aimed at promoting safe and trustworthy AI.
The G7 released an 11-point framework to guide developers in responsible AI creation and deployment. The framework includes measures to identify and mitigate risks, publicly report system capabilities, implement security controls, prioritize research, and develop international standards.
The code of conduct will be updated based on input from various stakeholders and aims to maximize AI benefits while mitigating risks for the common good worldwide. The European Commission has expressed support for the code and urged AI developers to sign and implement it. (VentureBeat)
ChatGPT for career growth? Practica introduces AI-based career coaching and mentorship
Practica, a startup that initially offered executive coaching services, has launched an AI chatbot that serves as a workplace mentor and coach.
The AI system is built on a knowledge base developed from years of working with human coaches. It covers a wide range of topics and uses a technique called Retrieval Augmented Generation to match the best learning resources for users.
The AI coach provides personalized instruction, finds relevant learning materials, tracks progress, and remembers the user's history. (TechCrunch)
Accelerating AI tasks while preserving data security
Researchers at MIT have developed a search tool called SecureLoop that can identify optimal designs for deep neural network accelerators, which can enhance performance while maintaining data security.
The tool considers how encryption and authentication measures impact the performance and energy usage of the accelerator chip. By using SecureLoop, users can improve the speed and performance of AI applications while ensuring sensitive data remains protected.
The researchers found that SecureLoop identified schedules that were up to 33.2% faster and 50.2% more energy-efficient compared to other methods. The tool could also be extended to find designs resilient to side-channel attacks and applied to other types of computation. (MIT News)
AI Education
Master Data Analysis (MDA)
The Master Data Analytics program is designed to develop leadership skills and decision-making abilities based on data. It covers topics such as data organization, tools, ethics, visualization, analysis, and data governance.
The program offers preparation for official certifications in web analytics, Google Analytics, and cloud services. It aims to train professionals to become Data Translators and other data-driven professionals.
Data Management Executive Program (DAEX)
The Data Management Executive Program (DAEX) is designed for executives and professionals who understand the importance of data in shaping the future of their companies.
The program helps participants discover the power of data and make data-driven decisions as leaders. It covers topics such as the value of data, data management, data technology, analytics, visualization, and real-life data use cases.
Especialización en Inteligencia Artificial
The specialization program in Artificial Intelligence is designed to explore the applications of AI in different business areas and learn how to design future strategies with impact for organizations.
The program focuses on the new field of Generative Artificial Intelligence, which involves learning patterns from data to create new content. The curriculum covers topics such as AI fundamentals, generative AI, business impact, sector-specific applications, and a project challenge.
Food for Thought
AI Reaccelerating Cloud Growth
Google (Alphabet) and Microsoft recently announced their earnings for their cloud businesses. The growth rate of both companies' cloud services has been tracked for the past 18 months, with MongoDB experiencing a significant increase in growth rate last quarter.
Microsoft has also seen growth, fueled by AI workloads. On the other hand, Google's growth declined after plateauing last quarter. Microsoft is diversifying its algorithms portfolio and has seen increased adoption of Azure OpenAI. The paid Copilot business, which is an assistant across Microsoft products, is now a USD$360 million ARR business. Microsoft's presence in the developer ecosystem is impressive, with the number of developers using GitHub increasing fourfold since its acquisition.
Both Google and Microsoft have introduced AI-powered security products, suggesting that this may be the next vertical to grow in AI. Google has seen customer expansion driven by its Copilot product, Duet AI. Hyperscale companies with deep AI exposure are experiencing faster growth rates as enterprise demand for these products increases. (Tomasz Tunguz Blog)
How to fine-tune ChatGP
This article discusses the process of fine-tuning language models, specifically OpenAI's ChatGPT, to tailor them for specific use cases. Fine-tuning involves training the model on new examples to improve its performance in specific tasks.
The article provides a step-by-step guide on how to fine-tune the base version of ChatGPT using OpenAI's APIs. It also explains the format of the training data and highlights the importance of having a sufficient number of examples.
The article mentions that while fine-tuning can be beneficial for certain use cases, prompt engineering (optimizing prompts) is often sufficient for most situations. (Artificial Ignorance)
Race to AI: the origins of artificial intelligence, from Turing to ChatGPT
The article discusses the history of AI, starting from the development of the Perceptron, the first neural network, in 1958. Despite advancements in AI over the years, there is still no serious rival to the human brain.
The article highlights the contributions of figures like Frank Rosenblatt, Alan Turing, and John McCarthy to the field of AI. It also mentions the limitations and challenges faced by AI, including the burst of the AI bubble in the 1970s and the difficulty in coding human expertise into computers.
However, advancements in neural networks and the availability of computing power have led to significant progress in recent years. (The Guardian)
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