At the end of February 2026, the UNESCO Regional Office in Santiago and the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence (CENIA) signed a cooperation agreement to promote the responsible use of artificial intelligence in education across Chile and Latin America. The partnership establishes a framework for collaboration aimed at strengthening capacities, advancing digital competencies, and ensuring that AI systems are developed and implemented according to ethical standards throughout their lifecycle.
Through this agreement, both organizations will coordinate initiatives that promote AI literacy and support people-centred AI development grounded in ethical principles. The collaboration will focus on developing education and training projects for a wide range of audiences, including the general public, educators, technical professionals, and policymakers. It will also involve the creation of adaptable training resources and encourage multi-stakeholder dialogue to strengthen national and regional ecosystems related to innovation and the responsible use of emerging technologies.
An early milestone of the partnership is the integration of Latam-GPT, the region’s first open large language model designed for Latin America and the Caribbean. The tool will support Ministries of Education and will be used within UNESCO’s new Regional Observatory on AI in Education, helping governments and institutions explore practical and responsible applications of AI in educational systems.
The agreement also aligns with UNESCO’s broader mandate to promote ethical, inclusive, and rights-based artificial intelligence through policy guidance and international standards. CENIA’s expertise in research, technology transfer, and large-scale training will contribute to expanding these priorities across the region, supporting both innovation and capacity development.
Overall, the partnership reinforces UNESCO’s commitment to strategic collaboration that promotes responsible innovation, strengthens governance frameworks for emerging technologies, and helps build a digital culture based on transparency, inclusion, and respect for human rights across Latin America and the Caribbean.
