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In a concrete lab in Santiago, Chile’s capital, researchers are scrambling to join the artificial intelligence boom before it passes them by.
On the streets of Cerrillos, a neighborhood on Santiago’s southern outskirts, activists are fighting to block the data centers that make A.I. possible.
In the presidential palace, officials are plotting how to expand the country’s role in the technology on a shoestring budget, without using up precious resources and alienating the public.
Across Chile, political debates have flared over artificial intelligence. That has turned this arid South American nation of 20 million people — which is rarely at the center of global tech debates — into a vivid example of a country trying to manage the trade-offs in the A.I. race.
Chile has courted investment and seeded talent and is building capacity for A.I. The moves offer potential economic growth but threaten the environment and deepen dependence on U.S. tech giants. Chilean officials have proposed a plan to manage new data centers, which has set off protests and, most recently, debates in Parliament.
Many Chileans, who view artificial intelligence dimly, if they think about it at all, wonder if it is worth it.
