Prof. Dr. Maurício Pinheiro, DF-UFMG
The Misguided AI Policy in Brazil
Brazil, always at the forefront of visionary decisions, has decided it’s time to conquer the world of Artificial Intelligence technology. With a modest investment of R$ 23 billion (US$ 4 billion) over the next five years, our government has devised a megalomaniacal plan to place us at the top of the AI race. And, of course, why not? Nothing says “digital sovereignty” more than a billion-dollar supercomputer that should be able to predict even the next episode of a soap opera.
Let’s start with the supercomputer, the star of this spectacle. A machine so powerful that it makes superpowers tremble with envy—or at least that’s the expectation, until it becomes obsolete the following year. With it, Brazil will be able to create AI solutions, store data, and perform calculations at a speed that would make Einstein proud. This, of course, in a country where most schools barely teach math, let alone computer science. But who cares? While the supercomputer “flies” through complex problems, millions of children are still trying to turn on a computer at school, provided the power cable is intact and the internet hasn’t dropped for the thousandth time that day.
And what about the glorious “sovereign cloud”? A name so grandiose that it could very well be the title of a prime-time soap opera. This cloud, developed to store data from SUS and CadÚnico, promises to be the guardian of our most precious secrets—like our medical records and perhaps a few poorly framed selfies. But in the end, digital sovereignty for whom? For that small political elite that barely knows how to do a ‘backup’ or enjoys the privilege of browsing without fear of censorship? Or for the State, which, under the guise of sovereignty, seeks only to expand its control over our lives? Meanwhile, most Brazilians are still struggling with technological and digital illiteracy (though they are experts at liking dance videos on TikTok).
Oh, and we couldn’t forget the absolutely brilliant idea of developing a Brazilian ChatGPT. After all, who needs to take advantage of existing and widely tested technology when we can reinvent the wheel, right? The proposal is to create a large language model trained on national data, capable of understanding Portuguese like no other—because, of course, Brazil is an isolated linguistic island, where nothing that already exists in the world is good enough for us. So, let’s invest millions in a project that, with luck, might one day say “hi” as well as the original ChatGPT, politically correct. But why not? There’s nothing like spending fortunes to do what has already been done, only with a Brazilian twist—and hoping that, it doesn’t start spelling ‘lasagna’ with a ‘z’.
And the startups, those little gems of innovation that could actually make a difference? Ah, they are mentioned, yes, but with the importance of a footnote in a 500-page book. While the United States and China perform acrobatics to foster their startup ecosystems, Brazil seems to believe that the future lies in giant machines controlled by a small elite to serve the ego of the rulers. The small entrepreneurs, those who could be at the forefront of this digital revolution, are left to fend for themselves, without any significant support. Perhaps, if they’re very lucky, they’ll manage to find some space in this “sovereign cloud” to store their dreams and projects.
In summary, the much-celebrated “digital sovereignty” of AI in Brazil seems more like a desperate race for a podium that is increasingly out of reach. In the end, we’ll have brilliant machines, monumental clouds, nationalist-socialist ChatGPTs, and a population that barely knows how to access Google to look up a tutorial on how to use a computer. But hey, at least we’ll be on the technological ‘podium’—though, unfortunately, the audience (that is, us) will be left out, trying to understand how the hell they spent our hard-earned tax money.
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