The quick progress of artificial intelligence technologies has raised legitimate concerns regarding their negative consequences, related to potential impacts on the exercise of human rights and, particularly, the risk of discrimination against historically vulnerable groups.

Given the potentially irreparable consequences of implementing artificial intelligence techniques can have without human rights considerations —particularly in a region marked by high levels of inequality and the absence of adequate guarantees for the protection of rights— it is essential to analyze the policies and initiatives developed at a regional level, identifying areas for improvement in light of current international principles and good practices that respond more appropriately to the local context.

With this goal in view, we initially developed four case studies on diverse implementations of artificial intelligence in four Latin American countries.

In Brazil, the researchers analyzed the use of Artificial Intelligence in the National Employment System, with the aim of facilitating the placement of unemployed professionals in the labor market. In Chile the investigation focused on the Child Alert System, which seeks to estimate and predict the level of risk to children and adolescents of suffering a violation of their rights in the future. In Colombia the researchers analyzed PretorIA, a project of the Colombian Constitutional Court whose goal is to make the process of selecting cases on judicial protection of fundamental rights more efficient. In Uruguay, the research focused on Coronavirus UY, a free mobile application made available by the Uruguayan Ministry of Public Health to manage the COVID-19 pandemic.

The case studies were developed in partnership with local research centers, human rights organizations, and researchers: Dejusticia (Colombia), MediaLab.UFRJ and Red LAVITS (Brazil), Dina Yael (Uruguay) y Matías Valderrama (Chile).

Eventually, we will add new case studies in these and other Latin American countries.