Vía Libre visited the studio of the show Industria Nacional on the streaming platform Gelatina, hosted by Pedro Rosemblat alongside Marcos Aramburu and his team. The panel featured a specialized group including Beatriz Busaniche—president of Fundación Vía Libre—, Manu Aguilera—sociologist, human rights and social innovation specialist, and member of the Center for Digital Public Infrastructures—, and Iago Moreno—sociologist, analyst, and communicator. Throughout the discussion, an in-depth debate was held on the moves of major AI tech corporations, potential regulatory approaches, and the challenges of Argentina’s sovereign integration into the new global order.
The guests also analyzed how the rhetoric of Silicon Valley giants shapes the public agenda and conceals urgent territorial, scientific, and economic issues. Addressing the alarmist narratives pushed by Anthropic executives and Nobel laureates warning of an alleged 10% probability that AI will cause human extinction, Beatriz Busaniche was blunt in stating that she is “fed up” with such declarations. The specialist argued that these apocalyptic visions are not genuine warnings, but rather a marketing maneuver aimed at “financial capture”—to justify inflated valuations prior to going public—and “regulatory capture,” seeking to stoke panic so that governments pass excessively stringent regulations that only major corporations aligned with power can comply with, thereby pre-emptively locking out potential competitors.
Furthermore, the discussion delved into computing needs for national development, emphasizing that processing power is an essential resource for the scientific system and public universities to conduct research without relying exclusively on external providers. Within this framework, concern was raised over the establishment of data centers in Argentine territory—with projects in provinces like Chubut and Neuquén—which require massive amounts of water and energy for cooling, posing a risk of resource depletion for local populations unless sovereign regulations and compensatory terms are enforced.
In closing, the panel emphasized that panic over existential threats distracts from current harms and blocks fundamental, in-depth debates that we as a society should be having. Rather than passively accepting the agenda set by major multinationals, Busaniche highlighted the urgency of focusing on “developing technologies by and for the people,” highlighting alternatives such as “small models” and open-source solutions tailored to the specific needs and context of each community. Likewise, the importance of understanding that these are not abstract tools was underscored, but rather “technologies that are performative, with the potential to improve productivity in certain areas” and that directly impact the social, political, and economic spheres—recalling that for Vía Libre, “understanding how things work is an essential act of rebellion” to avoid being sidelined from decisions shaping our own future.