New AI Model Introduced Specifically for Latin America  

LATAM-GPT has been developed by a South American non-profit as an open-source model expressly for Latin American languages.

Wired.com is reporting that the new artificial intelligence model, led by the nonprofit Chilean National Center for Artificial Intelligence (CENIA), “aims to help the region achieve technological independence by developing an open source AI model trained on Latin American languages and contexts.”

“This work cannot be undertaken by just one group or one country in Latin America: It is a challenge that requires everyone’s participation,” Álvaro Soto, director of CENIA, told WIRED en Español in an interview. “Latam-GPT is a project that seeks to create an open, free, and, above all, collaborative AI model. We’ve been working for two years with a very bottom-up process, bringing together citizens from different countries who want to collaborate. Recently, it has also seen some more top-down initiatives, with governments taking an interest and beginning to participate in the project.”

Soto said the model was developed, not to compete directly with existing AI platforms like OpenAI. “The project stands out for its collaborative spirit. We want a model specific to Latin America and the Caribbean, aware of the cultural requirements and challenges that this entails, such as understanding different dialects, the region’s history, and unique cultural aspects.”

Wired reports that Latam-GPT is compiling information from 20 different countries, with the most data coming from Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Columbia and Argentina. All together it is starting with  total of 2,645,500 documents.

The report says developers plan to release the first version of Latam-GPT before the end of the year and it “will be refined and expanded as new strategic partners join the effort and more robust data sets are integrated into it.”