Omar Costilla Reyes passionately describes the transformative potential of artificial intelligence for his homeland Mexico. He envisions AI technologies elevating living standards, reducing healthcare expenses, boosting literacy rates, and enhancing government transparency and accountability throughout the region.
However, Mexico, alongside many Latin American nations, has lagged in AI investment compared to other developing regions. This concerns Costilla Reyes, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, who recognizes the urgent need for artificial intelligence economic growth in Latin America.
To catalyze progress, Costilla Reyes and three fellow MIT graduate students — Guillermo Bernal, Emilia Simison and Pedro Colon-Hernandez — have dedicated the past six months to organizing a groundbreaking three-day summit. This event will unite policymakers and AI researchers from Latin America with their counterparts in the United States. The AI Latin American sumMIT, scheduled for January at the MIT Media Lab, aims to foster AI innovation opportunities in developing countries.
"Africa is receiving substantial support and will eventually catch up technologically," Costilla Reyes observes. "We don't see comparable initiatives in Latin America, despite AI's immense potential to advance the region both socially and economically."
Four Diverse Paths to MIT and AI-Inspired Research
Each student followed a unique journey to MIT, where AI now plays a pivotal role in their research spanning neuroscience, voice technology, creative computing, and political analysis. Costilla Reyes received his first computer in high school; despite its limited dial-up internet, it opened windows to a world beyond his hometown of Toluca. He pursued his PhD at the University of Manchester, developing an AI system for security and health applications that identifies individuals through their gait patterns. At MIT, Costilla Reyes now creates computational models of how neural activity produces memory and cognition—research that could both advance neuroscience and improve AI technology.
After graduating from a vocational high school in El Salvador, Bernal relocated to relatives in New Jersey, studying English at a local community college. He continued his education at Pratt Institute, where he integrated Python into his design work. Now at the MIT Media Lab, he develops interactive storytelling tools like PaperDreams that leverage AI to enhance human creativity. His innovative work recently earned him a Schnitzer Prize.
Simison arrived at MIT for her PhD in political science following encouragement from professors at Argentina's University Torcuato Di Tella to pursue advanced studies in the United States. She currently employs text analysis tools to examine archival records in Brazil and Argentina, investigating the role of political parties and unions during previous dictatorships in both nations.
Colon-Hernandez, raised in Puerto Rico with a fascination for video games, found his calling after a high school robotics class inspired him to build a computer for gaming. This led to a computer engineering degree at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. After assisting a friend with a project at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Colon-Hernandez applied to a summer research program at MIT and later joined the MIT Media Lab's graduate program, where he now focuses on developing intelligent voice assistants.
Generalizing about a region as culturally rich and geographically extensive as Latin America—stretching from Mexico and the Caribbean to South America's southern tip—presents challenges. Yet persistent protests, violence, and reports of systemic corruption have dominated headlines for years, while average income relative to the United States has been declining since the 1950s. All four students view AI as a powerful catalyst for bringing stability and expanded opportunities to their home countries through sustainable AI development in emerging markets.
AI with a Humanitarian Mission
The concept of bringing Latin American policymakers to MIT emerged last December at NeurIPS, the world's premier AI research conference. NeurIPS organizers had introduced new workshops promoting diversity in response to criticism about the exclusion of women and minorities in technology. At Latinx, a workshop for Latin American students, Costilla Reyes connected with Colon-Hernandez, who was presenting on voice-activated wearable technology. Within hours, they began drafting plans to bring a Latinx-style event to MIT, advancing MIT students' AI policy influence in Latin America.
Back in Cambridge, they found support from Armando Solar-Lezama, a Mexico native and professor in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. They also began seeking funding, securing an initial $25,000 grant from MIT's Institute Community and Equity Office. Additional graduate students joined their efforts, and together they recruited speakers, reserved space at the MIT Media Lab, and designed a website. RIMAC, the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, X Development, and Facebook have all since pledged support for the event.
Unlike traditional AI conferences, this gathering emphasizes practical applications aligned with several UN Sustainable Development Goals: ending extreme poverty, advancing quality education, creating fair and transparent institutions, addressing climate change, and promoting good health.
The students have established concrete objectives for the conference, from mapping AI adoption across Latin America to outlining actionable steps policymakers can take to coordinate regional efforts. U.S. researchers will provide tutorials on open-source AI platforms like TensorFlow and scikit-learn for Python, while the students continue fundraising to bring ten Latin American counterparts to participate in the poster session.
"We constantly reinvent the wheel instead of building on existing knowledge," notes Simison. "By motivating countries to integrate their efforts, we could significantly accelerate progress in AI technology social impact across Latin American countries."
The potential benefits are substantial. A 2017 report by Accenture estimated that integrating AI into South America's five largest economies—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru—which generate approximately 85 percent of the continent's economic output, could potentially add up to 1 percentage point to their annual growth rates.
In developed nations like the U.S. and Europe, AI sometimes generates apprehension about job displacement, misinformation proliferation, and the perpetuation of bias and inequality. However, Solar-Lezama emphasizes that the risks of not embracing AI—particularly in countries already struggling economically—could be far more severe. "There's an urgent need to ensure these countries have a seat at the table and can benefit from what will undoubtedly be one of the major engines for economic development in the future," he states.
Post-conference outcomes will include comprehensive policy recommendations to guide regional AI initiatives. "People are protesting across the entire continent due to the marginal living conditions most face," explains Costilla Reyes. "We believe AI plays a crucial role in both current and future development of the region—provided it's implemented thoughtfully and ethically."
