Artificial Intelligence in Cuba Progress in Research Development on Its Application on the Island

Research on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Cuba is growing. Studies on this technological programming system are now tangible and demonstrate scientific and technical efficacy, while also driving the informatization of society.

Dr. Yailé Caballero Mota, a researcher at the University of Camagüey Ignacio Agramonte y Loynaz, recently told digital media outlets that Cuba is already making significant progress in developing an AI Development Strategy.

This academic and multidisciplinary project is led by the Camagüey university institution and has the approval of the Cuban Software Industry and Society Informatization Sectorial Program of the Ministry of Communications (MICOM).

Caballero Mota emphasized that the project also involves experts and students from other Cuban universities, including participation from Villa Clara, Santiago de Cuba, and Havana, as well as the assistance of professionals from the Ministry of Higher Education (MES), MICOM, and the high-technology company specializing in the development of software applications.

In October of last year, 2023, the International Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research was inaugurated at the Hebei University of International Studies (in the People’s Republic of China) in an academic alliance between Cuba and China. This event is part of the activities for the implementation of the project in expanding and strengthening new areas of research collaboration.

In this sense, the researcher—who also serves as the director of the institute in Hebei—highlighted the valuable work of other Cuban universities in this academic link, including the Central University “Marta Abreu” de Las Villas, the Technological University of Havana José Antonio Echeverría, the University of Havana, the University of Computer Sciences, the Agrarian University of Havana, the University of Cienfuegos, the University of Oriente, the University of Ciego de Ávila, and the previously mentioned University of Camagüey Ignacio Agramonte.

Details were also provided about the technical composition of the center in northern China, which, while functioning as an advanced field in AI, directly impacting the higher education institutions, also contributes greatly to the population benefit through the promotion of social development through innovation, as the project’s objective budgets.

Mota explained that the institute has laboratories for AI, Big Data, the Internet of Things, Blockchain, Cloud Computing, and Software Development, with a direct focus on scientific studies and application development in the fields of biotechnology and biomedicine, quality of life for the elderly, smart cities, the environment, precision agriculture, and smart manufacturing.

The International Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research, in its primary research function, as well as development and innovation—alongside doctoral, master’s, and undergraduate education—not only has links with national institutions for the subsequent application of results in Cuba but also features a Data Center.

This Data Center primarily focuses on high-performance computing and Big Data and aims to provide services to the research studies of the AI Research Institute, as well as its associated companies.

Yailé Caballero Mota—also a Full Member of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba and the World Academy of Sciences—mentioned significant aspects of AI use in the country, including early detection of COVID-19, acute respiratory diseases, and ataxia, applying the identification of preclinical biomarkers and progression of gait and posture in neurodegenerative diseases, as well as classification algorithms that accurately reveal mediastinitis and mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease.

As another factor of relevance, the researcher referred to other situations in which AI application excels in utility, stating, “it is validated in the efficient use of energy, through the implementation of a system for the multi-objective balance of primary distribution circuits and predicts the electrical demand for the National Electrification System.”

Following this line of implementation, in the construction sector, the capacity of composite structures is announced, and in computational mathematics, work is done on the impact of evolutionary algorithms of distribution estimation, in addition to urban transport in terms of optimization and route refinement.

Regarding the advances of the project’s activities, it was emphasized that the Cuban academic entity and its scientific publisher are involved in a project to create a text that compiles the applications developed over more than 20 years in the effective use of AI.