Weak Infrastructure Threatens Mexico’s AI Sovereignty: UNAM

Experts argue that Mexico lacks the necessary infrastructure to sustain technological sovereignty. This structural deficiency limits the country's ability to capitalize on the benefits of AI and represents a strategic risk to its long-term economic and social development. 

"At this crossroads, AI cannot be understood simply as a technological advancement; it is above all a political decision, an opportunity for civilization and also an ethical commitment," said Lorena Rodríguez, Director of the Faculty of Economics, UNAM, during the “Ibero-American Colloquium on AI.” The event was organized by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), the Ministry of Economy (SE) and the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI).

At the event, Rodríguez argued that the country faces "urgent structural challenges, persistent educational gaps, limited scientific capabilities, regulatory vacuums, and still insufficient infrastructure." These factors create an adverse environment for the sovereign development and implementation of advanced technologies. The governance of AI, therefore, cannot be a centralized process. Instead, it must emerge from a collective, informed and pluralistic debate that ensures alignment with society's ethical values, she argued.

Multi-Sector Perspectives

AI is reshaping all production processes and creating new market opportunities, says Sergio Silva, Head of the Unit for Economic Promotion and Growth, SE. However, Mexico’s limited energy infrastructure restricts the growth of this sector. "If we want to get on [the AI] wave, we have to be able, for example, to generate energy and to do so without destroying the planet in the process," says Silva. This directly links technological sovereignty with the capacity for sustainable energy production.

AI, climate change, and automation are the main "vectors of disruption of our time," says Xóchitl Aldana, Permanent Representative, OEI in Mexico. Aldana adds that the complexity of these challenges exceeds the capacity of a single sector, making a "pentahelix" collaboration model essential. This model requires the synergy of five key actors: academia to guide scientific development, the government to establish a regulatory framework that protects citizens, industry to drive innovation and generate solutions, civil society to ensure equity and ethics, and the media to inform and raise awareness.

Mexico's future in the AI era will depend on its ability to build inclusive and sustainable governance, said experts at the forum. The technology is not neutral and directly impacts a nation's decisions, biases, and priorities. Therefore, its development must be the result of collective deliberations that ensure this technological transformation translates into equitable progress aligned with the country's strategic interests, says UNAM.