Montevideo (EFE).- The multinational Microsoft inaugurated its fourth artificial intelligence laboratory in Uruguay and the first in Latin America, which, according to its managers, has “giant potential” and can become “a beacon of innovation” towards the future.
This was stated during the inauguration ceremony of the Microsoft AI Co-Innovation Lab within the Technological Laboratory of Uruguay (LATU) by the chief scientist and director of Microsoft AI for Good Research Lab, Juan Lavista.
“This is a monumental step towards a future in which Uruguay will not only be on a par with world leaders in artificial intelligence but will also be in a position to surpass them (…) Let’s hope that this laboratory will be a beacon of innovation”, indicated the Uruguayan during the event, attended by the president, Luis Lacalle Pou.
Lavista also underlined to EFE the reasons why the technology giant wanted to establish its third artificial intelligence laboratory outside the United States, after those in Munich (Germany) and Shanghai (China), in the South American country.
“Uruguay is the country that has the largest number of developers per capita in the region and even the largest number of people with knowledge of artificial intelligence per capita, and for us that was essential,” he said, highlighting the importance of Plan Ceibal, through which developers Children in Uruguay learn through devices from primary school.
Microsoft Strategy Lab
Lavista, who in his speech said that among the solutions that this technology can provide is that of diagnosing diabetic retinopathy through a cell phone, suffered by 450 million people when there are only 200,000 ophthalmologists, indicated that Microsoft is open “to many ideas.” .
“Today artificial intelligence has the benefits that it can work in very diverse areas, so we are not closed to certain types of projects,” he emphasized.
In the same vein, the global leader of the Microsoft AI Co-Innovation Labs, Jun Yamasaki, expressed himself, who estimated that this new laboratory is “very strategic” and said that the application of what is developed in this type of facility crosses all activity sectors.
“They aim to empower everyone, across all industries. This means that it does not matter if you are a company of one or two people or one of more than 5,000 people; if you are an agriculture, technology, finance, health company, ”he stressed.
The Uruguayan Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining, Omar Paganini, meanwhile, stressed at the ceremony the importance of startups (emerging companies) in Uruguay, a country that, he pointed out, already has a technological and software industry “recognized in the world”, being able to count on state-of-the-art tools that only large companies have is key.
“Being able to open an open laboratory where there is no cost for startups to come and develop their prototypes with a proven methodology that is working in the world, like the one Microsoft offers us, with technicians who will support them, I think it is the way strategy to get out of this dilemma”, he stated.
The first conversations between Microsoft and Uruguay took place in October 2021 and the parties signed the agreement to install the laboratory at the beginning of June 2022.