Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang expresses admiration for Chinese technology during his trip to Beijing
In a significant stride towards artificial intelligence (AI) inclusivity, Latin America is set to launch the Latam-GPT project, an ambitious initiative designed to create a large language model (LLM) tailored to the region's diverse cultures, languages, and social realities.
Led by Chile's National Center for Artificial Intelligence (CENIA) and supported by over thirty institutions across twelve countries, the project aims to address the limitations and biases of global AI models, which are predominantly trained on English data and often lack cultural sensitivity and linguistic diversity relevant to Latin America.
The Latam-GPT project has key objectives, including cultural relevance, preservation of linguistic diversity, democratization of AI, and ethical data practices. The model is designed to reflect the diverse cultures, languages, and social realities of the region, ensuring it is more culturally relevant and sensitive to local needs. By focusing on local dialects and Indigenous languages, Latam-GPT aims to preserve linguistic diversity and safeguard cultural heritage.
The project is open-source, making AI more accessible and democratizing its use within the region, allowing for applications in education, public services, and more. The model uses ethically sourced data, emphasizing ethical data collection and use practices to ensure that it is fair and representative of the region's diverse communities.
Compared to existing AI chatbots, Latam-GPT promises improvements in reducing bias, enhanced cultural understanding, and increased accessibility. By using region-specific data, Latam-GPT aims to reduce the biases present in global models, which are often trained on English data and may not perform well in diverse linguistic contexts. The model is tailored to understand and respond appropriately to the cultural nuances and linguistic variations of Latin America, making it more suitable for local contexts compared to global models.
However, the project faces challenges such as infrastructure capacity, funding, and long-term sustainability. Despite these challenges, Latam-GPT is set to launch in September 2025 with 50 billion parameters, marking a significant step towards more inclusive and regionally relevant AI.
Meanwhile, in the tech world, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang received a rockstar reception during a visit to Beijing, but distanced himself from recent Chinese export controls. The US has a bleak outlook for offshore wind due to the recent tax-and-spending bill that curtailed tax credits for the projects, causing offshore wind costs to grow in recent years, making the industry vulnerable to supply chain constraints and price changes.
Elsewhere, researchers in Southeast Asia, East Africa, and India have already pushed forward with efforts to tailor AI to their populations and languages, demonstrating a global trend towards more inclusive AI technologies. These developments underscore the importance of regional AI models in fostering cultural sensitivity and linguistic diversity in AI applications.
The Latam-GPT project, initiated in Latin America, is designed to address limitations in global AI models by creating a large language model tailored to the region's diverse cultures, languages, and social realities, aiming to promote cultural relevance, preserve linguistic diversity, and democratize AI usage in business, finance, technology, politics, and general news.
While Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang received a warm welcome in Beijing, the US offshore wind industry faces challenges due to tax-and-spending bill changes, affecting its ability to grow and adapt to supply chain constraints and price changes in various sectors such as business, finance, technology, politics, and general news.
