When Cities Import Surveillance Instead of Solutions
Latin America's AI crossroads reveals the difference between technology that serves citizens and technology that monitors them
Yesterday, I published an analysis for Americas Quarterly examining how Latin American cities are deploying artificial intelligence—and whether these technologies will enhance democratic governance or digitize authoritarian control. Summary below, with a link to the full piece.
Latin American cities face a choice that will shape democratic governance for generations: Will artificial intelligence enhance public services and citizen participation, or will it become another tool for surveillance and control? The analysis examines how the region's urban centers are navigating this crossroads, often under pressure to deploy AI as a quick fix for complex problems like crime and inadequate public services.
The evidence from across five countries tells a clear story. Failures like Rio de Janeiro's discriminatory facial recognition system—which produced false positives that harmed police investigations and disproportionately targeted Black communities—show what happens when cities import surveillance packages without considering local context or rights protections. Meanwhile, successes like Buenos Aires' PROMETEA legal automation system demonstrate that human-centered AI design can dramatically improve efficiency while maintaining rigorous safeguards and human oversight.
What's particularly troubling is the recent trend of cities abandoning locally-controlled, transparent systems in favor of commercial products that operate as "black boxes." Buenos Aires' shift from PROMETEA to ChatGPT epitomizes this backwards thinking—trading a system designed with human rights safeguards for faster processing times, while sacrificing transparency, local control, and contextual understanding of Argentine law. The region has an opportunity to chart a "third way" between U.S. deregulation and European restriction, but only if cities resist the temptation of technological quick fixes and commit to building AI that genuinely serves citizens rather than monitors them.
Read the full analysis: AI in Latin America: Smart Cities or Surveillance States?