Chile participates in global Artificial Intelligence meeting "GPAI Innovation Workshop 2024" invited by Inria

Nayat Sánchez-Pi, Director of the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology in Chile (Inria Chile), Sofía Jordán, Advisor of the Chilean Mission to the OECD, and Álvaro Soto, Director of the National Center for Artificial Intelligence (CENIA), participated in the 2024 edition of the GPAI Innovation Workshop, held on May 22 and 23 at the PariSanté Campus, located in Paris, France.

The GPAI Innovation Workshop 2024, organized by the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (Inria) and the Montreal International Center of Expertise in Artificial Intelligence (CEIMIA), its Canadian counterpart, brought together experts from around the world to address complex challenges through concrete projects of cross-border experience and inspiring testimonies.

GPAI: main platform for international cooperation on artificial intelligence

GPAI is a multi-stakeholder initiative launched in 2020 that aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice in artificial intelligence, by supporting cutting-edge research and applied activities in priorities related to artificial intelligence. Today, 29 countries are part of this Alliance, launched initially by Canada and France, and three of them are from Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.

This initiative has a secretariat located at the OECD in Paris, and two expert support centers at Inria in France and CEIMIA in Canada. The experts appointed by the member countries work in working groups dedicated to topics such as responsible artificial intelligence, data governance, the future of work, and innovation and commercialization of AI. The GPAI is the main international platform for cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence.

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Inria Chile / Sofía Jordán, Advisor of the Chilean Mission to the OECD during the plenary session of the GPAI Innovation Workshop

Chile, for its part, has just launched an update of its National Artificial Intelligence Policy, introduced initially in 2021, as well as an action plan and a proposed bill on AI. The country, which is positioning itself as a leader in Latin America in this matter and, in particular, in governance and ethics of AI, organized in October 2023 the first Latin American summit on these topics in Santiago, in which the countries of the region signed the Santiago Declaration. Participating in an organization such as the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence is, therefore, key for the country.

A preparatory event for the Paris AI Summit.

The GPAI Innovation Workshop 2024 had as its main objective to be a preparatory event for the AI Summit that will take place in Paris in February 2025 and to open a dialogue between the Member States and the Experts to:

Identify how AI can help address the challenges the Member States are facing;
Co-design projects that help achieve the objectives of the Members about their priorities;
Create a recurring communication channel between Members and Experts.

For the 2024 version of the innovation workshop, three tracks of work were defined: AI Security, Democratization of AI Resources, and Environment and Sustainable Agriculture, with the participation of experts from GPAI member countries, as well as from other invited countries, among which Chile, for the first time.

In this instance, Nayat Sánchez-Pi worked as part of one of the AI security working groups, as did Ricardo Baeza-Yates, of the Institute for Experimental AI at Northeastern University in the United States, and Sofía Jordan participated in one of the Democratization of AI Resources working groups, as did Álvaro Soto.

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Inria Chile / Latin American experts in artificial intelligence at the GPAI Innovation Workshop 2024

During the workshop, participants shared multidisciplinary research and discussed key issues among AI professionals, with the aim of proposing concrete projects that address the main global challenges of AI security, help reduce social inequalities, accelerate positive environmental action, and transform the agricultural landscape profitably and sustainably.

Finally, Inria Chile hopes that the AI Summit in Paris, which will be held in February 2025, will bring together the global ecosystem in artificial intelligence to discuss and outline the future of this technology and its global governance.

Verbatim

For Chile, participating in an instance of international cooperation in artificial intelligence such as the GPAI Innovation Workshop 2024, allows us to harmonize concepts and promote interoperability and regulation that protects human rights, and at the same time, it allows us to position the interests of our region and our topics of interest such as the use of AI for the energy transition or to improve access to education.

Sofía Jordán

Advisor of the Chilean Mission to the OECD

Verbatim

It was two days of intense work on the topics of AI Safety, Democratization of AI, and Environment and Sustainable Agriculture, which are tremendously relevant in the global dialogue for a global governance of AI. The GPAI is a multilateral instance where Chile, as a regional leader, has a lot to contribute. There is currently a great commitment to the development of an Artificial Intelligence ecosystem in Chile, and this is where Inria Chile plays a key role, as an operator of the Franco-Chilean relationship in digital sciences and AI.

Nayat Sánchez Pi

Director of Inria Chile

Verbatim

Artificial intelligence today is a disruptive technology that is going to change all our activities, and the fact that there are instances like this, in which people from different parts of the world can come to share their experiences and try to collaborate selflessly, in terms of only seeking the common good, is wonderful because there is sincerity towards the desire to contribute, that's why I'm very happy to be able to participate in the event.

Álvaro Soto

Director of CENIA

Verbatim

International cooperation meetings in AI are important because one can influence the technological policies of governments, and I am also a member of the 'steering committee' of the GPAI. I think it will be even more important when Chile becomes a member of this group.

Ricardo Baeza-Yates

Research Director at the Institute for Experiential AI of Northeastern University