{"id":171358,"date":"2025-10-31T13:19:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T19:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tecscience.tec.mx\/en\/?post_type=sciencecommunication&p=171358"},"modified":"2025-11-10T17:52:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T23:52:25","slug":"ai-and-inequality","status":"publish","type":"sciencecommunication","link":"https:\/\/tecscience.tec.mx\/en\/science-communication\/ai-and-inequality\/","title":{"rendered":"AI Wave Hits Mexico, Exposing Inequality and Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By M\u00f3nica Casalet<\/a> and Federico Stezano<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artificial intelligence has become part of everyday life. Yet access to it\u2014and its development\u2014still reflects deep inequalities, with significant consequences for power dynamics, geopolitics, and strategies of cooperation and conflict among nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Mexico, the challenge lies in strengthening existing infrastructure and institutions, promoting a multidisciplinary debate, guiding industrial policy design, and developing advanced technological capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But how can Mexico harness the AI revolution to drive growth and reduce inequality? To explore this question, our study, \u201cArtificial Intelligence in Mexico: Industrial Policy, Actors, and Digital Capabilities\u2014Challenges in a Turbulent Geopolitical Landscape,\u201d<\/a><\/em> examined how the country is confronting the challenges of AI and digital transformation amid global technological competition and the restructuring of global value chains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research also underscores that AI is not only a technological model but also a social one\u2014requiring both public and private debate.  [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mexico and the Global AI Boom<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Terms like algorithm<\/em>, machine learning<\/em>, and ChatGPT<\/em> are now part of daily conversation. AI is already embedded in phones, cars, hospitals, and factories. Over 73% of Mexican households have internet access, and more than 80% use smartphones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Mexico City and Nuevo Le\u00f3n, internet penetration exceeds 84% [2]. By contrast, 89.4% of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises have fixed internet connections, and more than 60% rely on cloud services or social media for management and sales [3,4].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the figures look very different in states such as Chiapas (50.7%) and Oaxaca (55.5%) \u00a0[5], illustrating that access to AI\u2014and the technologies that enable it\u2014is far from evenly distributed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In research and applied AI, activity is concentrated in Mexico City, with little presence in the country\u2019s southeast and northwest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Mexico contends with these regional disparities, major powers like the United States and China are pouring vast resources into AI development. According to Stanford\u2019s AI Index Report 2025<\/em>, private AI investment in 2024 reached $109.1 billion in the U.S. and $9.3 billion in China. [6]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Technological Revolution <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The launch of tools like ChatGPT marked a radical shift: for the first time, millions could interact with an intelligent system in their daily routines. This sparked a surge in government and corporate investment in AI\u2014yet left unresolved familiar questions: Who controls this technology? Under what rules? And what are its social and political implications?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI is more than a passing trend\u2014it\u2019s a general-purpose technology, much like the railroad or electricity once were. It can be applied across virtually every economic sector: healthcare, transportation, finance, education, manufacturing, and entertainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But like any powerful, far-reaching innovation, AI amplifies existing problems. If it\u2019s trained on biased data, it reproduces inequality. If it\u2019s deployed without regulation, it risks undermining fundamental rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mexico faces the dual challenge of leveraging this technological revolution to fuel economic growth while narrowing social divides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing on official data and a political economy framework for innovation, our research finds that digital capacity depends on technological infrastructure and institutional frameworks. We examined the intersection of industrial policy and productive transformation across three levels: global, national, and regional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlocking Potential Through Policy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Mexico is not starting from scratch. States such as Nuevo Le\u00f3n, Quer\u00e9taro, and Jalisco have consolidated industrial clusters that integrate digital technologies into sectors such as automotive, aerospace, electronics, and medical devices.\u00a0[7]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country\u2019s universities and technology institutes are producing skilled talent and specialized research groups. In the Monterrey\u2013Quer\u00e9taro corridor, for instance, a Tec de Monterrey advanced manufacturing model uses AI and virtual reality to optimize robotic assembly, improve worker training, and boost regional productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet beyond these technical achievements, the most advanced regions must help spread innovation nationwide. Mexico still operates as a patchwork of \u201cknowledge islands\u201d with limited connections to broader innovation and technological development networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The State Digital Development Index<\/em> reveals that only a handful of states possess the digital capacity to effectively adopt AI, reflecting a deeper structural issue in an unequal economy\u2014where many small businesses lack infrastructure, trained personnel, and resources to innovate. [8]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our research concludes that AI adoption cannot be decreed from above; it must emerge from an ecosystem of public-private collaboration focused on developing new skills\u2014coding, data analysis, algorithm design, and the integration of AI tools into production processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is that many of these skills are still absent from basic education and technical training programs. Mexican firms also face barriers to accessing talent and often depend on external providers or imported technologies applied as \u201cplug-and-play\u201d solutions, which limit homegrown innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To harness AI\u2019s potential and reduce inequality, Mexico must design a coordinated industrial and technological policy that brings together government, business, universities, and research centers. This means:<\/p>\n\n\n\n