March 16, 2026

A recap of the SALA LatAm AI Summit, featuring insights on computer vision, sustainability, reasoning, and the future of LLMs.

Insights from SALA: The LatAm AI Summit

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend SALA, the Summit of AI in LatAm. It was an incredible event that brought together some of the brightest minds in artificial intelligence to discuss regional and global advancements.

Throughout the summit, several presentations caught my attention and offered fresh perspectives on where the industry is heading.

Computer Vision and Sustainability

David Fleet showcased the latest advances in computer vision, revealing that modern systems are far more capable than we often realize. The potential applications are vast and continue to push boundaries.

Meanwhile, Francisco Gomez drove home a critical message: making our environment sustainable is a shared responsibility. We can use data science and AI to search for solutions to our local problems.

Reasoning and Local LLMs

Samy Bengio offered a deep dive into how reasoning actually works within models. He outlined the ongoing challenges we face when applying AI to truly complex problems, reminding us that we still have a long way to go.

On the language model front, Omar Florez demonstrated the power of LatamGPT. He showed that a local, context-enabled LLM, efficiently trained using Continual Pre-Training (CPT), is entirely possible. This opens up massive opportunities for local markets to leverage context-aware AI.

The Future of Tokenization

One of the most thought-provoking sessions came from Thamar Solorio. She fundamentally questioned how we currently handle LLMs, asking whether our current tokenization approaches are the right way forward. Her talk opened my mind to the idea that there is much more to developing LLMs than our current paradigms, and perhaps older theories deserve a second look.

A Compass in a Fast-Moving Industry

Beyond these specific highlights, I want to express my appreciation for all the other speakers at SALA. Their great talks and collective insights provided a much-needed compass in an industry moving at incredible speeds, guiding us through the complexities of AI development and adoption in LatAm and beyond.

A Well-Organized Event

Special thanks to Pablo Samuel Castro and Eduardo Alba for expertly overseeing all the details and making this event a success.

SALA was a powerful reminder of the innovation happening within the LatAm AI community and the complex challenges we get to tackle next.