Mercadante wants R$2 billion credit line for IA – 11/22/2023 – Market

The president of BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development), Aloizio Mercadante, said at a seminar held on Tuesday (21) that he will evaluate the creation of a R$2 billion credit line focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and defended the creation of a discussion network about technology.

“I’m going to suggest that we evaluate the creation of a credit line of R$2 billion including Finep [Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos] and Embrapii [Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa e Inovação Industrial] to see how we are going to leverage this sector”, said Mercadante at the event “The impact of artificial intelligence in Brazil”, held at the BNDES headquarters, in Rio de Janeiro.

“We will discuss with MCTI [Ministério de Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação]Doctor [Ministério de Desenvolvimento, Indústria, Comércio e Serviços], government bodies, academia and other partners, to create the Brazilian Artificial Intelligence Network. A permanent group of reflection and intervention”, he stated.

The president of BNDES said in the presentation that Brazil has the chance to take the lead in this technological turnaround, marked in the last year by the rise of generative AIs, which produce, for example, texts, images and videos based on user commands.

Mercadante stated, however, that it is necessary to observe how countries at the forefront of AI, such as the United States and China, will deal with regulating the technology before Brazil moves forward on the subject.

“The subject of regulation [da IA] It’s a big challenge, but we have to see how other countries are going to advance before we rush into something that we don’t have experience with.”

“We have to act realistically, but we have to be pragmatic, know how to use this technology, being aware of the risks, including the impact on the job market, but use it to improve, in good practices, improve the efficiency of the economy, improve the development of society”, he said.

In his opening speech, Mercadante also addressed the balance sheet for the third quarter of this year, released by BNDES last week.

During the period, the development bank had a 21.3% increase in net profit compared to the same period last year, while disbursements for investments in the economy grew 18.4%.

Despite the positive numbers, the management of the state bank dedicated part of the presentation to outlining a more pessimistic scenario if it is unable to extend its transfers to the National Treasury.

“We have sought to combine the bank’s final activity with the BNDES’ historical role of formulating public policies, of discussing strategic themes for Brazil, as it has been throughout our history,” Mercadante said at the seminar.

The event held this Tuesday discussed the challenges and opportunities of using AI in the country with a focus on employment and education.

There were panels on the subjects by researcher Alexandre Nascimento, affiliated with Stanford University, the former director of the OECD, Andrew Wyckoff, the undersecretary of Technological Projects and Innovation of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Vinícius Wu, and the superintendent director of Sesi , Rafael Lucchesi.