AI Governance World Map

Country Overview

Chile is among the more advanced Latin American jurisdictions on AI governance process, though it still has no AI-specific law in force. A comprehensive AI bill (Boletín 16.821-19) was introduced by presidential message in May 2024 under then-President Gabriel Boric, merging an executive proposal with an earlier parliamentary initiative. It would classify AI systems into four risk tiers (unacceptable, high, limited, no evident risk), ban practices such as generalized social scoring and real-time remote biometric identification in public spaces, and create a National Commission on Artificial Intelligence responsible for authorizing, monitoring and updating rules — with sanctions reportedly reaching up to 20,000 UTM (a Chilean tax/penalty unit) for serious violations. The Chamber of Deputies approved the bill and sent it to the Senate around October 2025; it remains in its second constitutional stage as of mid-2026, under review by the Senate's Comisión Desafíos del Futuro, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación, which held further stakeholder consultations with academia, industry and public-sector representatives in June 2026. Some legal commentary has flagged that the proposed National Commission's functions could overlap in confusing ways with those of Chile's planned National Personal Data Protection Agency, a design question that remains unresolved.

A further layer of political uncertainty followed Chile's December 2025 presidential runoff, in which José Antonio Kast defeated Jeannette Jara and took office on March 11, 2026, ending Boric's term and shifting the government to the right. In his first State of the Union address on June 1, 2026, Kast pledged to advance a separate, bipartisan Technology Transfer and Knowledge law (which passed the Senate on May 13, 2026) and said AI 'should be designed, trained, built and generate employment in Chile,' committing to strengthen computing capacity, energy access, connectivity and data centers, but he did not make specific commitments regarding the pending AI bill itself. Alongside the legislative process, Chile already has a non-binding National AI Policy (first published 2021, updated 2024) built around ethical, sustainable and internationally coordinated AI use, plus applied-ethics tools such as GobLab UAI's Algorithmic Impact Assessment and Bias/Equity Measurement instruments and a MinCiencia/ChileValora AI-ethics-auditor labor certification launched in 2025. Chile has also become the regional hub for sovereign-model efforts: in February 2026 CENIA led the launch of Latam-GPT, described as the first open-source large language model built specifically for Latin America — trained on regionally sourced Spanish, Portuguese and Indigenous-language data, backed by CAF and more than 50 institutions across the region, and slated to run later versions on a modest supercomputer being installed at the Universidad de Tarapacá in northern Chile. On infrastructure, Chile has attracted major hyperscaler investment — AWS (over $4 billion for a new region), Microsoft ('Chile Central') and Google (its first Latin American data center, in Quilicura) — though this has also drawn criticism over water and energy use.

At a Glance

Overall AI policy direction

Comprehensive AI bill advancing through the Senate; no binding law yet

Major AI companies

Research institutions

Live debates

Latest development: August 13, 2026
Regulatory approach: Risk-tiered, EU-influenced comprehensive AI bill (Boletín 16.821-19) in second constitutional stage in the Senate, layered on a non-binding National AI Policy
Major AI companies: NotCo, Betterfly, Fintual
Major cloud providers: AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
Leading research institutions: Universidad de Chile, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (UAI)
Key ministries: Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología, Conocimiento e Innovación (MinCiencia), National Commission on Artificial Intelligence (proposed), CENIA (Centro Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial)
Government involvement: MinCiencia leads both the National AI Policy and the pending AI bill; the Senate's Comisión Desafíos del Futuro is actively soliciting stakeholder input as of June 2026
Industrial strategy: Growing hyperscaler data-center investment (AWS, Microsoft, Google) combined with President Kast's stated goal of building domestic compute capacity and AI-related employment
International partnerships: National AI Policy explicitly emphasizes international and multi-actor coordination as one of its three cross-cutting principles
Primary policy focus: Advancing the comprehensive AI bill through the Senate while the new government's specific position on it remains largely unstated

Current Direction

Tightening

Chile's AI-specific bill continued moving through the Senate in the first half of 2026, with the Comisión Desafíos del Futuro gathering input from academia, industry and government in June 2026 after the bill's October 2025 arrival from the Chamber of Deputies. The political backdrop shifted substantially with President Kast's March 2026 inauguration; his June 2026 State of the Union emphasized compute infrastructure and a separate Technology Transfer law rather than committing explicitly to the pending AI bill, leaving some uncertainty about the new government's posture toward binding AI regulation even as the legislative process itself continues.

Recent Developments

8 this cycle

Science Minister Ximena Lincolao announced (13 August 2026) that the Executive would present a new AI bill in the coming weeks, replacing the risk-based bill (Boletin 16.821-19) in second constitutional reading in the Senate. The new text aims to provide certainty, promote innovation and set clear safeguards without hindering AI development, under a 2026-2030 ministry roadmap that treats AI as critical infrastructure.
2026-08-13
SourceLa Tercera
President Kast's first State of the Union address commits to strengthening computing capacity, energy access and data centers, and says AI 'should be designed, trained, built and generate employment' in Chile, without detailing a position on the pending AI bill.
2026-06-01
SourceDiario Financiero
Senate passes the separate Technology Transfer and Knowledge law, which Kast highlights alongside AI in his first State of the Union.
2026-05-13
SourceDiario Financiero
José Antonio Kast is inaugurated as President of Chile.
Major
2026-03-11
SourceWikipedia
CENIA leads the launch of Latam-GPT, described as the first open-source large language model built specifically for Latin America — trained on regionally sourced Spanish, Portuguese and Indigenous-language text, backed by CAF and more than 50 institutions across the region. Initial training used AWS cloud infrastructure, with later versions intended to run on a roughly US$4.5 million supercomputer being installed at the Universidad de Tarapacá in northern Chile.
Major
2026-02-10
SourceCENIA bne IntelliNews
Executive amendments to the AI bill address comprehensibility of AI outputs for affected persons, expand prohibited uses (subliminal manipulation, remote biometric identification, mass facial-image extraction), and add 72-hour incident-notification requirements for high-risk systems.
2026-02
SourceIAPP
José Antonio Kast defeats Jeannette Jara in Chile's presidential runoff with more than 58% of the vote, ending the Boric administration that had authored the pending AI bill.
2025-12-14
SourceWikipedia
Comprehensive AI bill (Boletín 16.821-19) is approved by the Chamber of Deputies and sent to the Senate for its second constitutional stage, though deputies reportedly rejected some governance and regulatory-implementation articles.
Major
2025-10
SourceDiario Financiero

Policy and Regulation

3 tracked

Comprehensive AI systems bill (Boletín 16.821-19)

Proposed

Introduced by presidential message in May 2024, merging executive and parliamentary proposals; classifies AI systems into four risk tiers, bans practices like generalized social scoring and real-time public remote biometric identification, and would create a National Commission on Artificial Intelligence with authorizing and enforcement powers. Approved by the Chamber of Deputies and sent to the Senate around October 2025; remains in the Senate's Comisión Desafíos del Futuro as of mid-2026.

Official text ↗

SourceNeuronet IAPP Diario Financiero

National AI Policy (Política Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial)

In force

First published 2021 with a 10-year horizon; updated in 2024 around three cross-cutting principles — ethical and people-centered AI, AI in service of sustainable development, and international/multi-actor coordination. Non-binding.

Official text ↗

SourceMinisterio de Ciencia, Tecnología, Conocimiento e Innovación

Technology Transfer and Knowledge law

Passed

Originated under the Boric administration (April 2024); passed the Senate May 13, 2026 with bipartisan support; aims to facilitate commercialization of academic research, an enabling condition President Kast has linked to Chile's AI ambitions.

SourceDiario Financiero

Research Ecosystem

Chile's most prominent dedicated AI research body is CENIA (National Center for Artificial Intelligence Research), a government- and privately-funded center based in Santiago that partners with Universidad de Chile, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez. CENIA announced in May 2026 that principal investigator Pablo Barceló would lead the center for its 2026-2031 continuity period, succeeding its earlier leadership. CENIA also coordinates Latam-GPT, the region's flagship open-source large-language-model initiative, launched in February 2026 and developed with partners across more than a dozen Latin American countries. GobLab UAI, the public-innovation lab of Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez's Government School, has separately developed applied algorithmic-ethics tools — an Algorithmic Impact Assessment, a Bias and Equity Measurement instrument, and an Algorithmic Transparency Form — piloted across nine public institutions between 2023 and 2025, plus a Public Algorithms Repository.

SourceCENIA Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez / GobLab CENIA

Major AI Companies

NotCo

Chilean food-tech unicorn using its 'Giuseppe' AI platform to formulate plant-based food products; backed by Tiger Global and Bezos Expeditions.

Betterfly

Chilean employee-benefits and wellbeing platform, reached unicorn status in 2022; backed by SoftBank and QED, incorporates AI-driven personalization into its offerings.

Fintual

Chilean fintech/robo-advisory startup automating investment management; raised a $39M Series B led by Sequoia Capital.

Cloud Infrastructure

Frontier AI: Emerging / sovereign models
Compute: Growing hyperscaler regions (AWS, Google, Microsoft); a modest ~US$4.5M supercomputer at U. de Tarapacá supports the CENIA-led Latam-GPT open model
Chip access: Import-reliant; no domestic advanced-chip fabrication

AWS

Announced an investment of more than $4 billion to launch a Chilean cloud region with three availability zones in Santiago province.

Google Cloud

Operates Google's first Latin American data center, in Quilicura (opened 2015), and launched a cloud region for Chile and the Southern Cone; the Quilicura facility's water use has drawn environmental criticism.

Microsoft Azure

Operates the 'Chile Central' region across three independent physical locations, offering Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform services.

Leading Universities

Universidad de Chile

Leading public research university and a core partner institution of CENIA, Chile's national AI research center.

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Major research university and CENIA partner, also active in AI ethics and public-sector algorithm research through affiliated centers.

Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (UAI)

Home to GobLab UAI, the public-innovation lab that developed Chile's Algorithmic Impact Assessment and related public-sector AI ethics tools.

Think Tanks

GobLab UAI

Public-innovation laboratory at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez's Government School; created 2017, leads applied work on algorithmic ethics, transparency and bias/equity measurement for Chilean public-sector AI use.

Government Institutions

Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología, Conocimiento e Innovación (MinCiencia)

Lead ministry for Chile's National AI Policy and the pending comprehensive AI bill; led by Minister Ximena Lincolao since March 2026.

National Commission on Artificial Intelligence (proposed)

Regulatory body that would be created by the pending AI bill, with powers to authorize, monitor and update AI rules, propose risk classifications, and issue an annual report; not yet established, pending the bill's passage.

CENIA (Centro Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial)

National Center for Artificial Intelligence Research, funded by government and private institutions, aiming to make Chile a regional hub for AI research and technology transfer.

Notable Gaps

AI regulator
No AI regulator yet exists; the bill's proposed National Commission on Artificial Intelligence has not been created and some legal commentary flags unresolved overlap with a planned National Personal Data Protection Agency.
New government's position
President Kast's administration has not stated a clear public position specifically on the pending comprehensive AI bill, beyond broader compute-infrastructure and technology-transfer commitments.
Frontier AI development
No frontier foundation-model developer is headquartered in Chile; the strongest domestic AI activity is in applied research (CENIA), public-sector algorithmic ethics tools, and AI-enabled startups (NotCo, Betterfly, Fintual) rather than base-model research.

Key People

MinCiencia→

Senate Comisión Desafíos del Futuro→

CENIA→

GobLab UAI→

AWS / Google / Microsoft (data centers)

Ximena Lincolao

Government

Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation

Government of Chile (Kast administration)

José Antonio Kast

Government

President of Chile (since March 11, 2026)

Government of Chile

Pablo Barceló

Researcher

Director (2026-2031 continuity period, announced May 2026); principal investigator

CENIA (National Center for Artificial Intelligence Research)

People and Organisations to Follow

Ximena Lincolao

Government

Minister of Science overseeing Chile's AI bill and National AI Policy under the new Kast administration.

CENIA

University

Chile's leading national AI research center, partnering with the country's top universities.

GobLab UAI

Think tank

Applied algorithmic-ethics lab shaping Chile's public-sector AI governance tools.

Current Debates

2 live

Government

Whether the proposed National Commission on AI overlaps confusingly with a future data-protection agency

Some legal commentators argue the AI bill's proposed National Commission on Artificial Intelligence has poorly delineated authority relative to Chile's planned National Personal Data Protection Agency.

▾

Analysis published in Diario Constitucional has characterized the current institutional design as 'mal diseñada' (poorly designed), questioning whether both bodies would end up with overlapping competencies over AI systems that process personal data — likely the majority of high-risk systems in practice. This design question remains unresolved as the bill sits in the Senate's Comisión Desafíos del Futuro, and how it is resolved could materially affect how enforceable the eventual law is.

SourceIAPP Diario Financiero

Government

Whether Chile's new right-of-center government will maintain or reshape the AI bill inherited from the Boric administration

President Kast's June 2026 State of the Union emphasized compute infrastructure and employment rather than explicitly endorsing the pending risk-based AI bill drafted under his predecessor.

▾

Kast pledged to push forward the bipartisan Technology Transfer and Knowledge law and to strengthen Chile's computing capacity, energy access and data-center footprint, framing AI primarily as an economic and industrial opportunity ('designed, trained, built... in Chile'). He did not make specific public commitments regarding the risk-tiered AI systems bill introduced by the Boric government in 2024, leaving open whether his administration will continue championing it, seek to amend it, or deprioritize it relative to infrastructure-focused initiatives.

SourceDiario Financiero Wikipedia

Knowledge Hub

3 curated

Official documents

Proyecto de Ley que regula sistemas de Inteligencia Artificial— MinCiencia
Continúa la tramitación del Proyecto de Ley sobre IA en Chile— IAPP

Think tank reports

Repositorio de Algoritmos Públicos— GobLab UAI

Sources

14 cited

Deliberately sourced beyond government publications. The bars below show each category’s actual share of this page’s citations — an internal editorial guideline rather than a rigorously derived target, so treat it as a rough steer, not a precise benchmark.

Government 7%Research 29%Industry 7%News 50%Expert commentary 7%