Rights to protect people from AI's irresponsible use? What Latin America is doing and why it matters
Alfredo González Briseño
8/5/20266 min read
Should Artificial Intelligence have legal rights? This is a question that is coming up from debates regarding potential consciousness and personhood of AI. Before going deeper in this discussion, there is a more relevant question to ask as AI continues to mainstream: Should humans have rights vis-a-vis the use of AI? Some countries in Latin America are taking this question seriously and it is being reflected in their plans and early decisions about AI regulations. Let's talk about it.
Should AI get rights of its own?
That was the title of a Politico's article from last year. It brought back old memories from the 1990s movie The Matrix and the The Animatrix short films with stories explaining the raise of the machines—and their subsequent battle with humans—after being treated poorly by the human race.
In the 1990s that was pure science fiction. Today, AI is materializing not only as computer programs and algorithms doing complex tasks, but also in combination with robots. Clear examples include the humanoid robot in China walking a dog robot, as well as other AI-powered robots being companions of the elderly and kids. Or even other types of AI-powered machines like Waymo's autonomous or self-driving taxis.
We certainly do not know how the future "normal" will look like in the next 5 to 20 years—from an AI's use looking glass. Many things change, sometimes very rapidly. Precisely, 20 years ago when I arrived to the US, Blockbuster was still a thing for video rentals, while Netflix delivered content to users via mailed DVDs.
As we get to a society where AI-powered humanoid robots and machines as part of our normal life, an important question to ask today about rights is: how to protect humans from the irresponsible use of AI, or from the unforeseen outcomes and consequences of using a technology still being understood by the world?
A blessing in disguise for Latin America?
Mexico and many countries in Latin America are usually several steps behind the creation of technological innovations, when compared to more developed economies in the world. This situation has repercussions on the region's potential for development and economic growth.
The less favorable business and regulatory environment in LATAM, compared to the rest of the continent, may be a blessing in disguise in a fast-moving and fast-changing AI-driven world.
I say this because Latin American countries have the opportunity to witness and take lesson from what's happening in other countries, like the US. Lessons from the consequences—positive, unexpected and unforeseen—of letting AI's industry grow under less burdensome regulatory environments and a central government's desire of removing as many restrictions to this innovation as possible.
It seems that LATAM is taking notes and acting based on precaution, judicial tradition and lessons learned. Let's take a look at what is happening in the region.
What are countries in LATAM doing about AI regulation?
This time, I am going to focus on a few developments related to AI legislation and regulation from Brazil, Chile and Mexico. Let's start the analysis with Brazil.
Brazil's AI regulation
I heard about Brazil's AI bill for the first time when I took Prof. Bruce Huang's course on Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Ethics, Governance, and Laws—highly recommended.
When I was writing my book, last year, I decided to take a closer look at the bill and understand what was being proposed at the Brazilian Senate. What captured by attention instantly was that the projeto de lei or PL 2338/2023 talks about rights to protect citizens from their interactions and consequences related to decisions made by or with artificial intelligence.
For example, right upfront in article #5 of the initial text presented by Senator Rodrigo Pacheco, the proposed law starts like this: "People affected by artificial intelligence systems have the following rights..."
The article continues enlisting 6 rights related to receive: previous information to know they will be interacting with an AI system; explanations about decisions and provisions made by AI models; the opportunity to challenge AI decisions that had judicial or significant impact on them; and other rights regarding data privacy, discrimination and biases.
Additional articles in the proposed text outline more rights. Brazilian's AI bill is now in the House of Representatives. As it continues its slow progress since 2023, other AI regulations are emerging in the South American country.
Recent examples include presidential decrees No. 12.975 and 12.976 from May, 2026, regulating digital platforms and internet providers. The new rules in Brazil do not grant explicit or direct rights to people like the country's AI bill. Rather, they create obligations on digital platforms to protect people in the country, especially women—as it is the case of decree No. 12.976.
This decree aims to protect women from activities taking place online, including violence leading to death, damage that is either physical, sexual, psychological, political or economic. Section III of the presidential decree is focused on deepfakes and explicit content generated with the help of AI.
Chile's AI regulation
Chile still does not have a national AI law. An AI bill is still under debate at the Chamber of Representatives. The latest text available does not explicitly consider rights like Brazil's bill does. If interested, you can follow the Chilean AI's bill journey here.
However, the country is already putting in place rights and protections through amendments to its Data Privacy Law from December 2024—Ley 21.719.
Interestingly, Law 21.719 never mentions artificial intelligence in its legal text. However, because AI falls under the context or umbrella of personal data collection and handling practices that are "automatized", then a set of citizen rights from this law kick in.
Article 8bis is key about rights in the context of automated decisions affecting individuals, who will have the right to receive an explanation, appeal to decisions affecting them, among a few others.
Provisions like this will take effect on December 1st of this year. Sanctions for non compliance will affect AI firms operating in the country. They will range from the equivalent of a few hundred thousand to over a million dollars—according to the law's Article 35. In cases when lack of compliance persists, sanctions can triple or even go up to 2%o 4% of the offender's total annual revenue.
Mexico's AI regulation
Like Chile and other countries in LATAM, Mexico has not approved a national law governing artificial intelligence. Yet, several proposals have emerged in the last couple of years, including a bill that is moving through Congress to create a comprehensive national legal framework for AI—Ley General.
The bill under discussion at the Mexican Senate includes several articles aiming to create rights, obligations and prohibitions to protect people vis-a-vis the use of AI. Interestingly, the proposal includes an entire chapter with 4 articles on "neurorights" to protect people's brain and mental state.
The bill's Title 11 continues with more rights for users of artificial intelligence as well as obligations for providers and developers of AI solutions.
Earlier this year, Mexico also approved a decree reforming its Federal Labor Law and Federal Copyright Law, to protect the voice, image and artistic work of actors and creators, affected by the use of AI. In the Senate there are more proposals under discussion to give workers rights and protections.
What does this mean for future AI regulation in LATAM?
There are a few take away messages from what is happening in Latin America. Some of them apply to LATAM economies themselves. Others apply to other parts of the continent and world.
For starters, some countries in the region—like my country of origin, Mexico—are well known for designing laws and regulations that look perfect on paper but go nowhere else, lacking an effective or actual implementation.
While some of the examples mentioned above are encouraging from a human rights perspective, the history in Latin America tells us that those rights might not always be practiced and enforced.
Another concern relates to some conversation already taking place in Brazil. Before the country approves its AI bill, there is hesitation on whether following an approach grounded on rights might prevent the economy from reaping out the benefits from developing and growing AI's use faster and without many of the human protections being proposed.
This a valid concern if innovation is a priority, but as I mention in my book, it's also important to understand that regulations are not only at the service of AI and other innovations. Government-made rules are there to also protect what needs to be protected, like humans, consumers and workers.
What can the world learn from AI regulations in Latin America?
For the rest of the world the lessons may be different. Some regions have focused on risk-based approaches. Other economies are preaching to remove as many regulatory obstacles as possible. A few others orchestrate and control AI's development centrally from the public sector.
However, witnessing that AI is expanding and evolving pretty fast—with recent conversations on humanoid robots, the reality of self-driving cars and many other activities in which AI plays a key role—, it is not outrageous to advocate for human protections and rights before more activities and tasks are handed to AI algorithms and AI-powered machines.
At least in the US, studies on public opinion—like a recent one from the Pew Research Center—are showing that people start to have doubts and hesitation about AI. Other surveys are showing that Americans are calling for more regulations.
Letting AI firms mainstream their solutions without a proper communication, dialogue and collaboration with governments might not always lead to overall social benefits. Yes, the revenue and wealth created is significant—although very concentrated. That is where regulation plays a double important role: promoting innovation AND protecting what needs to be protected. By this I mean everything that is considered a public good.
In my recent book "Better Regulations, Better AI Results," I talk about this balanced approach, and most importantly "how" governments and organization can create better AI regulations that lead to better AI results, not only for a few, but also for the rest of the world.