Latin America and Caribbean Seek Collective AI Might to Break Foreign Dependency

A paradigm shift is brewing in Latin America and the Caribbean, as a new policy blueprint urges the region to abandon its fragmented approach to artificial intelligence and instead pool compute, talent, and funding to build collective strength. The report, issued by the Stimson Center, warns that without regional cooperation, most countries in the area risk deepening their dependence on foreign technology platforms and cloud providers, ceding sovereignty and innovation capacity.

The Case for Collective Action

Drawing on structural realities, the blueprint positions AI as a strategic development issue—not a narrow tech concern. It argues that the region’s competitiveness, digital sovereignty, and long-term innovation are at stake if governments fail to act together.

The Stimson Center blueprint frames AI as a strategic development issue rather than merely a technological one, with direct implications for competitiveness, sovereignty, and long-term innovation.

Many nations in Latin America and the Caribbean simply lack the individual scale to finance, build, or sustain large-scale AI systems. Individually they may struggle to afford the compute infrastructure or to retain top AI talent. By joining forces, the report contends, they can overcome these structural handicaps and create a homegrown AI ecosystem that better serves local languages, cultures, and economic priorities.

Three Pillars of Regional Cooperation

The blueprint centers on three main areas of joint action:

• Shared computational infrastructure: pooling resources to establish or access high-performance computing facilities that would be unaffordable for most single countries.
• Talent development: creating cross-border training programmes, researcher exchanges, and a regional network of universities and technical institutes to stem brain drain and build a deep skills base.
• Funding mechanisms: designing collaborative financing models, potentially with development banks and international partners, to underwrite AI research, startups, and public-sector applications.

Governance and the Tough Questions Ahead

Translating the vision into reality will require answers to thorny political and logistical questions. Where should shared infrastructure be hosted? How would a multinational AI governance body make decisions and enforce standards? How would costs be shared equitably among economies of vastly different sizes? And which countries or institutions would take the lead?

Regional bodies and development finance institutions are expected to play a convening role. The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean has long tracked digital development disparities, while the Inter-American Development Bank possesses the financial instruments and technical expertise to back large-scale infrastructure projects. Their engagement, the blueprint suggests, could help broker consensus and de-risk investments.

An International Dimension

The push for regional AI collaboration also intersects with broader global debates on AI governance. The blueprint calls for the region to align with international norms—such as those championed by UNESCO’s AI ethics framework—while staunchly defending local priorities, including data sovereignty, linguistic diversity, and equitable access to technology. By acting as a bloc, Latin America and the Caribbean could amplify their voice in global forums, rather than being passive recipients of AI systems designed elsewhere.

For the moment, the blueprint remains a policy proposal. But as AI becomes ever more central to economic and social life, the choice between dependency and collaborative self-reliance grows starker—and the region’s governments must now decide whether to seize the opportunity for collective action.