KHIPU 2025 was the Latin American party of artificial intelligence

The city of Santiago de Chile hosted for the first time the conference KHIPU 2025The event, the most important artificial intelligence meeting in Latin America, was held from March 10-14, 2025. This event brought together more than 500 attendees from academia, industry and other leaders in the area, becoming a crucial platform for research on artificial intelligence in Chile and the region.

"Having them all here is a dream come true," he said. Jocelyn Dunstan Escuderolocal chair of KHIPU 2025. The researcher at the Millennium Institute Foundational Research on Data and academic of the Department of Computer Science and the Institute of Mathematical and Computer Engineering of the Catholic University of Chile welcomed the more than 300 participants on Monday morning. 



During the opening ceremony, the dean of the Catholic University School of Business Administration and EconomicsThe first four days of the event were held at the venue, José Miguel SánchezHe highlighted the relevance of KHIPU as a space for the exchange of ideas and international collaboration. "AI is reshaping the global landscape and its role in the economy and business is more crucial than ever. As People, it is our responsibility to harness this powerful tool to advance the well-being and progress of all," he said.

"AI has the promise to significantly improve lives and boost business prosperity, however, solving such a complex challenge requires diverse perspectives and the brightest minds from every corner of the world. This conference aims to empower Latin Americans to become leaders in the field of artificial intelligence," said the Vice Rector of Research at P. Universidad Catolica de Chile, Pedro Bouchonwho also highlighted the role of the Millennium Institute Foundational Research on Data on the organization of KHIPU and the role of research centers in coordinating multidisciplinary work: "Researchers in the institutes and centers have the ability to understand the complexity of data, extract its value and transform it for the benefit of society, and in a world where AI is advancing rapidly, their work is more important than ever. 

The Millennium Institute Foundational Research on Datanext to the Catholic University of Chilewere the local host organizations for KHIPU 2025 in Chile. "Hosting KHIPU 2025 in Santiago gave us a unique opportunity to leverage the role of research being done in Chile in the area of artificial intelligence and data science, with a key focus on broad and diverse participation, aligning with the mission of using research in the area to improve the quality of life in Latin America," highlights Paula Mónica SilvaCommunications Coordinator of the Millennium Institute Foundational Research on Data and local co-chair of KHIPU 2025.

Of the 250 students who were selected from among 900 applicants, about 130 presented their research in academic posters, with the aim of sharing and exchanging knowledge with their peers, organizers, sponsors and speakers participating in the event. The participants, who came to Santiago from different parts of Latin America: from Mexico to the south of Argentina and Chile, were provided with facilities for their mobilization in local public transport and a large number of scholarships for accommodation.

An event with gender parity

"49.8% of KHIPU participants are not men," explained Enzo Ferrante, one of the international organizers and an academic from the University of Buenos Aires, at the close of the activities. "We know we have a critical diversity problem in our community but we are trying to address it by creating opportunities for minorities here: because here we are all minorities, we are all Latinx. Our main goal is to create opportunities for young students," he said.

KHIPU 2025's main objective was to offer training in advanced machine learning topics, such as deep learning and reinforcement learning. In addition, it sought to strengthen the machine learning community in Latin America through collaboration among researchers and the creation of opportunities to exchange knowledge with the international community. The event also sought to raise awareness of how artificial intelligence can be used to benefit the region.

Challenging learning pace: Master classes, practical sessions and parallel sessions

The first session of master classes was led by former IMFD researcher Jorge Perez, co-founder of Cero.ai, who presented the basics and fundamentals of machine learning and deep learning to the audience. During the conference, spotlights were presented by each participating country: the representative from Chile was Rodrigo Verschae, who presented the advances in Computer Vision research at the RIS Lab of the Universidad de O'Higgins.

The conference, in its first four days, featured more than 40 talks, nine practical sessions, ten Spotlights presentations, sponsor presentations and two panels, on "Research in academia and industry" and "Start-ups", in a demanding agenda that started at 9.00 a.m. and ended after 7.00 p.m., with the practical sessions. 



One of the nine parallel sessions held on Thursday focused on Human Rights and Artificial Intelligence, in which the director of the IMFD, Juan Reutterpresented the progress of the project Our MemorIAtogether with projects in Mexico (Victor Mireles), Argentina (Leandro LombardiQuantlT), Uruguay (Aiala RosáUdelaR). 

"Being able to share what we are doing in the area, to see the needs we share and also how our work differs, allows us to enhance our projects," said Juan Reutter, director of IMFD.

The last of the master classes of the first four days was given by IMFD researcher Barbara Poblete (Amazon / University of Chile), with "Decoding Online Social Signals: From Academia to Industry", a talk in which she presented the work done with data from social networks and the applications she is currently working on, focused on the market.

The presence of the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art

KHIPU takes its name from the data recording system of the Inca Empire: quipus have been analyzed and studied as an elaborate way of recording information, both numerical and narrative. In the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art one of the largest preserved specimens is found. The textile researcher María Patricia (Icha) RomeroThe workshop highlighted this advanced technology, and taught the more than 300 participants how to make a simple register using strings to record a date. "Thank you very much for inviting me, I always do this course as a child, so this is very new, and I am very happy to have so many people interested in learning," she said. 





Closing at the Extension Center of the National Institute - CEINA

On Friday the objective of KHIPU was to open its audience to the entire artificial intelligence community of Santiago and Chile. This is why the activities were moved to the Extension Center of the National Institute, CEINAThe event was attended by more than 500 People. 

Women in AI

"A key aspect of diversity, beyond geography, is gender. We know that less than 27% of the AI workforce are women, and this has proven problematic due to the unfair distribution of risks and benefits of AI," he noted Claudia LopezFederico Santa María Technical University and researcher of  CENIA y FAIRat the beginning of Women in AI, which included the participation of Catherine D'Ignazioauthor of the book Data Feminism and Ivana Feldfeberof Data Gender.

During the activity, the speakers presented the various challenges posed by the gender gap in the work carried out in the area of artificial intelligence, and also highlighted the excellent results obtained by considering a gender and diversity approach in the work and teams in the area. 

After the presentations, the following took place at the Head Office of the University of Chile the mentoring luncheon for KHIPU 2025 participants, which was supported by Women in Machine Learning (WiML) and the organization of Violeta Changacademic of the University of SantiagThe main challenges faced by women working in highly masculinized environments and strategies to overcome them were discussed. 


Closing Event: Academia and Industry 

With an interactive and outstanding presentation on the work being done at the Millennium Institute Foundational Research on Data on the project Our MemorIAby DCC UC academic and IMFD researcher, Domingo MeryThe Closing Event presentations began. 

Paola Bermolenof the University of the Republic of Uruguayshared his work on graphs and the possibility of reproducing real networks, with an approach that helps to analyze existing networks and create new networks that share the same key characteristics as the real ones. 

The challenges involved in handling the large amounts of information generated in astronomy is the issue it seeks to solve. Larchthe astronomical broker that, led from Chile, seeks to extract relevant astrophysical information from the enormous flow of astronomical information generated by the new generation of telescopes and digital cameras, and which was presented by Francisco Forster, director of the Millennium Institute of Astrophysics MASto close the first block of the day. 

In the Artificial Intelligence Governance panel, coordinated by Beatriz Busanich (Via Libre FoundationIgnacio Silva Santa Cruz, from Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and InnovationChile; Marina Bericuaof Microsoft; Luca Belli of the Getulio Vargas FoundationBrazil and  Juan Carlos Lara, Digital RightsThe event was an interesting debate on the challenges faced by People working in the area of AI and reaffirmed the Montevideo Commitment, which seeks to promote developments in artificial intelligence with a focus on our region, in order to position it at a global level. 


In the second block, he presented Jeff Deanchief scientist of Google Research y Google DeepmindThe presentation will focus on important trends in AI: how we got here, what we can do and how we can shape the future of artificial intelligence. The presentation of Joelle Pineauof GoalA culture of open science, in the era of the great foundational models of AI focused on innovation in the area and advancing the state of the art through open research for the benefit of all.

The closing was in charge of the Chilean René Vidalprofessor of the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Center for Innovation in Data Engineering and Science (IDEAS). in the USA, in which he presented on the importance of trust in Artificial Intelligence in medicine and the advances being made in this area, with a special focus on trust and security. 



Sponsors and organizations 

Finally, special recognition was given to the sponsors of the conference, thanks to whom this activity is carried out at no cost to the team participants, since the funds raised are used to finance the travel, accommodation and food of the selected participants. KHIPU 2025 was sponsored by the Hopper Dean Foundation, Apple, Google DeepMind, MIcrosoft, ACHS, Mistral AI, Cohere, ArionKoder, AMD, Anyone AI, AC3E, Zero.ai, IMC UCthe Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, Tryo Labs and the Master in Artificial Intelligence PUC. 

This was in addition to the contribution made by the Strategic Partners: the Extension Center of the National Institute, CEINA, NAACLthe UC School of Economics and Administration, RIIA Latamthe Concha y Toro Vineyard's Center for Research and Innovation, LXAI, WiML, CENIAthe Pre-Columbian Art Museum, INRIA Chile and the Universidad de Chile. 

"We managed to hold an event of great magnitude, in which the AI community from all over Latin America gathered to learn, share and advance in the challenges facing our region, with all the contribution we can make from our countries and the need we have to forge ties between researchers in the region", highlights the local chair of the event, Jocelyn Dunstan. "KHIPU 2025 was a milestone in the promotion of artificial intelligence in Latin America, offering a space for knowledge exchange and collaboration between regional and international leaders," added the researcher.