Artificial intelligence and intellectual property rights clash in Chile. And why José Antonio Kast’s security promises are rapidly losing credibility.
Ignacio Portes & Jorge C. Carrasco
AI REGULATIONS
Kast fails to sneak AI copyright exemptions in multi-purpose bill
A legislative conflict in Chile could be a harbinger for Western democracies, as bipartisan efforts to liberalize Chile’s intellectual property laws to favor AI development are meeting strong resistance from multiple non-governmental actors.
The latest example came this month, when a legislative reform that would have made it legal for AI systems to reproduce, adapt and train on copyrighted material — including music, text and images, without authorization from or payment to their original creators — was struck from a multi-purpose bill pushed by José Antonio Kast’s right-wing administration.
Proponents said that the provision would help attract foreign investment and reduce legal ambiguity around AI development in Chile, and that copyrighted materials would only be used for “data mining or statistical analysis.” But a rare alliance of artists, academics, opposition lawmakers and members of Kast’s own coalition joined forces to eliminate the article from the text.
👉 Why it matters. The debate over whether AI companies should be allowed to train their models on copyrighted content without paying for this right is among the most consequential intellectual property disputes of our time, and it is being fought simultaneously in courts and legislatures across the United States, Europe and now Latin America.
In just one of many recent examples, The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft over their use of millions of their articles to train their chatbots. Last year, Anthropic settled with authors in another copyright infringement case, while similar disputes are taking place around the use of code, pictures, music and more.
Chile’s attempt to write a broad AI exemption into national law would have been one of the widest of its kind in any jurisdiction around the world, but it triggered firm backlash across the country’s creative industries.
Critics such as the National Television Association (Anatel, not to be confused with Brazil’s telecom regulator), argued that the law would have allowed any tech company, regardless of size, nationality or commercial purpose, to exploit Chile’s protected creative catalog in its entirety without paying a single Chilean creator.
The National Press Association, which represents Chile’s main newspapers, warned that the measure would “weaken the economic base that finances professional journalism.” The Chilean Society of Authors and Musical Performers (SCD) called it a violation of the foundational principles of copyright law. The writers’ guild saw it as an existential threat, and universities called on peers to respond collectively.
Lawmaker Diego Schalper from the National Revolution party, part of Kast’s ruling coalition, voted against the article during committee discussions. “For someone who believes in property and freedom, this is a matter of principle,” Schalper said. Other coalition colleagues also voted no, and even Interior Minister Claudio Alvarado publicly questioned the provision, suggesting that it be “corrected” or “improved.”
Interestingly, Kast’s bill was a near-verbatim copy of a provision that the Gabriel Boric administration had tried to pass in 2024 as part of its AI law, which also stalled in Congress amid protests from cultural creators. In other words, two governments of opposite political stripes have now tried and failed to hand the same win to the AI industry.
While the questioned Article 8 has been struck down from Kast’s multi-purpose National Reconstruction Bill, many of its economic provisions were cleared in committee and passed in the lower house, and are now moving into Senate discussions.
But the AI debate will likely resume in the near future. “Our view is that the right place to discuss this is the bill regulating artificial intelligence systems, which is currently in its second reading in the Senate”, Anatel head Pablo Vidal told Chilean media. “Let’s debate it there, and hopefully all stakeholders will have the chance to be heard,” he argued.
CHILE
Kast’s security credentials questioned after cabinet firings
Chile’s newly sworn-in President José Antonio Kast was forced to make the earliest cabinet change since the country’s return to democracy in 1990, just 69 days after his inauguration. And it wasn’t any ordinary cabinet change, as the firing of Security Minister Trinidad Steinert places question marks on Kast’s central campaign promises.
Security and border control were at the heart of Kast’s rise to the presidency, with the leader taking aim at his predecessors as organized crime took hold in the country. But Kast’s minister struggled from her first day in office, questioned for using her position to shield a former associate with whom she reportedly had a personal relationship.
Steinert also failed to project an image of competence throughout her two short months in office, admitting that Kast’s government had not outlined a full security plan and delivering a nervous performance before Congress after opposition lawmakers denied her petition to read a PowerPoint presentation.
👉 Why it matters. Steinert’s actions have taken a toll on the government. Evelyn Matthei, a moderate conservative who finished last year’s election in fifth place, said she was willing to hand him her team’s security plan if he didn’t have one. The libertarian Johannes Kaiser, who also fought Kast for the presidency, said the lack of a security plan had been evident from his days on the campaign trail.
Kast replaced Steinert with Martín Arrau, who had originally been named public works minister, but will now have to take the hottest seat in the administration. The president also ditched Spokeswoman Mara Sedini, the most unpopular figure in his cabinet, merging her former position with that of the Interior Ministry.
“This wasn’t what I had in mind for this moment in time, but based on how urgent [security] is for this country, and to answer what Chile is demanding from us, this is a change that has to be done,” Kast said, justifying his decision.
The president will deliver his first report to Congress on June 1, with security expected to be one of his main focuses, including the presentation of a comprehensive plan on the matter. While his quick reflexes in firing Steinert could give him a second chance to turn the ship around, Kast should remember the cost that his predecessor, Gabriel Boric, paid for a chaotic start in this sensitive area.
Although Boric fired his first security minister, Izkia Siches, six months into his term and re-prioritized security after his first year in office, his administration never regained the public’s trust in this area, even as homicide numbers improved towards the second half of his term.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Last week, we asked you for the full name of Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz’s father, and half of you got it right, mentioning Jaime Paz Zamora, who served as Bolivia’s head of state between 1989 and 1993. The other half was far off, betting on José María Paz, a military leader from Argentina’s civil war era.
QUICK CATCH-UP
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✝️ As he celebrated a yearly mass with President Javier Milei in attendance, Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge García Cueva took aim at those who “foment division and polarization” and called for a country where “everyone has a seat at the table” and “the benefits are not just for the few,” a soft dig at his government, to which Milei opted not to respond.
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