Javier Milei and artificial intelligence: Argentine president closed meetings with Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Sam Altman and Sundar Pichai

The Argentine president Javier Miley has concluded a very peculiar trip to the United States, where he had a series of meetings with none other than the faces of some of the most important technology companies in the world: Google, Apple, Meta and OpenAI.

The day began last Monday, when he left Argentina heading to the United States, specifically to California, where Silicon Valley or the so-called ‘mecca of technology’ is located as the headquarters of several of the technology companies of the moment are located there.

According to information from the EFE news agency, the last meeting was with Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta, the company that manages applications such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads and other virtual reality and artificial intelligence products.

“President Milei and his team expressed their enthusiasm for future cooperation opportunities with Meta, which could bring important economic and technological benefits to the country,” said a statement from the Argentine presidency, at the close of the conversation.

In that sense, Argentina’s intention to become a center of technological innovation in our region was discussed.

And, in the case of Zuckerberg, the relationship with Argentina goes back several years. It is not the first time that a ruler of that country has met with the fourth richest man in the world. In 2015 he coincided in Panama with Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and in 2016 with Mauricio Macri.

The newspaper La Nación details that Karina Milei, the president’s sister, and the ambassador to the US, Gerardo Werthein, participated in the meeting. Zuckerberg gave him a company logo, which is a mix of the infinity symbol and virtual reality glasses.

In addition, Zuckerberg already visited Argentina several years ago, specifically in 2006, with his partner Priscilla Chen. He demonstrated this with a photo wearing Racing shorts and sitting on a bench. He was also in Uruguay then.

The faces of technology

We already know more about Zuckerberg. Who are the other characters with whom Milei has sought to strengthen ties?

Tim Cook (1960) is an American computer scientist and businessman. He has been in charge of Apple since 2011 and is the successor of none other than Steve Jobs, co-founder of the legendary company of the bitten apple.

The meeting took place at the offices in Cupertino, California, and the photos were shared by the Argentine presidency.

Apple has become known for its line of computing and smartphone products, specifically its Mac, iPad and iPhone line. The latter marked a before and after in telephony since 2007, when its first smartphone model was presented, which continues to set the trend.

Sundar Pichai (1972) is an Indian-American computer scientist. Today he is the executive director of Google, the well-known Internet search engine and perhaps the most important computer company.

The EFE news agency indicated that the spokesperson for the Argentine presidency, Manuel Adorni, reported that “several potential collaboration projects were discussed, focused on the development of digital infrastructure and training in technological skills.”

Perhaps crowning the day of meetings, Javier Milei also had a meeting with Sam Altman (1985), an American programmer and businessman whose name rose to fame two years ago, when ChatGPT was presented and the new use of artificial intelligence was showcased. .

Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, the company behind the popular conversational chatbot. Milei began her day of dating with the young businessman. “Here is a photo with Sam Altman after a wonderful meeting about AI and the enormous possibilities that a libertarian Argentina offers,” she wrote on her X account.

Currently there is no technology company that does not intervene in AI, from Meta, through Apple, Google, to Microsoft, and innovative startups like OpenAI.

In search of artificial intelligence?

One of the characteristics of Javier Milei’s management, in addition to the confrontations with other leaders, is that he prioritizes meetings with businessmen.

In his six months in office, he has made seven international trips, four of them to the United States, although none of these have been considered a state visit. What could be the purpose with these last meetings?

“What is probably being offered to them is the infrastructure that the use of artificial intelligence would demand, in terms of centers with servers that can respond to the high demand for the use of AI,” says Manuel Santillán, professor and researcher at the University of Lima, in dialogue with Trade.

And all the companies Milei has met with have a strong focus on AI. In the case of Google, there is Gemini, which was previously known as Google Bard; MGIE (AI tool for photo editing), in the case of Apple; or the LlaMA language model that Meta launched in 2023.

There are many artificial intelligence options that have not stopped emerging. However, he warns Santillán that there is an environmental impact that is not being measured, due to high energy consumption.

“A hydroelectric plant that no longer has water from the rivers to be able to produce energy, the first thing it takes is oil so that it continues to function and produce, or atomic plants that also have radioactive remains,” warns the specialist.

For this reason, he considers that it is “a somewhat problematic situation, not only encouraging in economic and positioning terms.”