Contxto – Argentina is the third best-ranked country regarding its Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy and strategy implementation in Latin America. It is surpassed only by Colombia and Costa Rica. Nevertheless, in the realm of private enterprise and AI startups, Argentina is second to none.
Not only is the diversity of its solutions impressive, but the sophistication of these go far beyond the simple machine learning algorithms that probably put this article up on your feed.
Startup missing?
AI startups in Argentina
Dev: If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?
Algorithm: Yes.
Sounds funny, but that’s how the trend towards AI has felt over the course of 2020.
Just this month, the Argentine Ministry of Science, Technology, and Productive Innovation green-lighted the development of an inclusive and sustainable AI legislation crafted for the well-being of the population, underlining the legal and ethical principles behind this tech.
And it’s not a moment too soon, because as AI advances, we will certainly have to grapple with the consequences as a society.
This is why, instead of breaking it down by sector, it might be useful to dive into the world of AI startups in Argentina by the sophistication of their tech.
Startups using basic machine learning
HR, gaming, e-commerce, even sportstech startups are coming up with very innovative solutions through which to deploy AI. However, often it is the concept behind the use of machine learning that makes them revolutionary, not the AI tech itself.
Thus, we can see a proliferation of increasingly interesting chatbots in enterprise services companies or the use of AI to analyze a market so as to more successfully plan demand peaks and detect trends.
Argentina, AI, and the Internet of Things
This is where things get interesting—and perhaps a little bit rocky on the ethics. As the Internet of Things (IoT) allows everyday items like toasters (and not-so-everyday items like satellites) to not only gather our information, but to learn and react to it, AI gradually draws us physical beings into the Matrix.
Computer vision in sectors like agtech, financial services, and e-commerce, allows for swift real-time analysis of inefficiencies and waste. But with tech like facial recognition becoming omnipresent, we’d best start thinking about the moral and legal implications behind its use.
Yet, it’s not all ominous dystopias. Argentina’s AI startups showcase more inspiring futures. Indeed, although Latam is loth to give us spacetech companies, Argentina presents us with two, Satellogic and Dymaxion Labs. And both use AI in their satellites; a necessary component when you’re not manning the vacuum of space.
Similarly, startups like Pachama and NYDRO deploy the IoT to detect carbon emissions with AI, helping to care for and reforestation of forests, or to measure and fix inefficiencies in our electrical grid.
-AG, SB
