Mexico needs to create an agency that promotes artificial intelligence and a clear scientific and technological policy to encourage innovation in the country, according to the opinion of the entrepreneurs who participated in a panel discussion of the Inteligencia México Conference.
Julián Ríos, CEO of Higia Technologies; Aldo Luévano, from Roomie Robot, and Arturo Campos, data director at GiGaLiFi were the entrepreneurs present in the panel. These specialists are experts in the use of artificial intelligence, data science, and robotics for innovation.
For Ríos, in Mexico, “we need an economy of creativity, of solving problems.” The entrepreneur, responsible for the creation of EVA ─a bra capable of detecting breast cancer from the analysis of the patterns of the temperature of the breast─ considers that “the programmers do not lead the innovation, but the scientists.” However, in the country, there are no possibilities for the development of scientists, and many of them end up going abroad.
Ríos regretted that the country lacks accessible data to solve the problems it faces.
“You can not do anything without data, and access to data is fundamentally important for the growth of public and private sector innovation,” said the entrepreneur.
“Mexico must provide data to companies that can use them for innovation,” such as the data generated by the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) as one of the leading providers of medical care in the country.
“If the companies and the government had access to this data, we could be leaders in innovation, but the IMSS does not have its data digitized. We need data to innovate. “
The CEO of Higia Technologies mentioned that it is also necessary to create open source tools to promote innovation.
The Inter-American Development Bank has a program to promote the open source code and open data.
In the turn of Arturo Campos, he mentioned the need that the country has to create a national agenda on artificial intelligence “to create an institute or agency that promotes its development.”
Campos commented that artificial intelligence could contribute to improving society by making better decisions and generating better lifestyle patterns, using smart cities as an example.
Aldo Luévano, who is responsible for the creation of a robot with open tools that can be trained to perform different tasks, emphasized the importance of automating work processes with the help of technology, such as in call centers with chatbots or wage management.
Mexico doesn’t have a science and tech policy
The panelists also criticized some of the current government’s measures, such as cutting back on the science and technology sector.
Campos considered regrettable that Mexico “does not have a science and technology policy,” while Luévano said that “the Mexican government should be aware of the need to implement AI.” Ríos mentioned that artificial intelligence does not threaten jobs because it creates opportunities in other sectors.
The Inter-American Development Bank has mentioned that Artificial Intelligence can contribute significantly to increase the Gross Domestic Product of Latin America, while the PwC consultancy believes that the IA will boost world GDP by 15.7 trillion dollars.