Lula Brings Together Government and Private Sector to Discuss AI

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called a roughly two hour meeting at the Planalto Palace on the night of August 11, 2026 to address Brazil's artificial intelligence policy. According to Poder360 and Jornal TaguaCei, the meeting brought together Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, 12 ministers from areas such as Finance, Foreign Affairs, Security, Communications and Science and Technology, plus university researchers and technology sector representatives.

'There's No Turning Back,' Lula Says of the AI Era

According to Diário do Grande ABC, Lula stated during the meeting that 'this meeting is the definitive beginning of our entry into the AI era, there's no turning back.' The president also argued, according to Brasil 247, that Brazil needs to develop its own technological capabilities rather than simply consuming AI solutions built in other countries, summing up the goal with the expression that 'Brazil has to own its own nose' on the AI issue, a colloquial way of saying the country must control its own path.

Not Competing With the US and China, but With Itself

Still according to Diário do Grande ABC, Lula said the country is ready, not to compete directly with powers such as China and the United States on frontier AI development, but to compete with its own current capacity, prioritizing the use of the technology according to national needs and interests rather than trying to replicate the frontier model race waged by those two powers.

On the Table: Digital Sovereignty, Elections and Rare Earths

Beyond the AI strategy itself, the meeting covered topics such as digital sovereignty, the risks of AI use in elections and the importance of rare earth minerals for the technology supply chain, according to Gazeta do Povo. The mention of elections carries weight because Brazil holds general elections in October 2026, a period when misuse of generative AI for disinformation is a recurring concern for election authorities in several parts of the world.

Two Years of Debate, but Still No Concrete Measures Announced

Despite the president's tone of urgency, Poder360's reporting notes that the Brazilian government has discussed creating a national AI strategy for more than two years, and the August meeting had not, as of its conclusion, produced the announcement of new measures, funding sources or implementation timelines. The country already has the Brazilian Artificial Intelligence Plan (PBIA) 2024-2028, which calls for R$1.76 billion in investment through 2028 aimed at talent development, infrastructure and technological sovereignty, but the Planalto meeting brought no formal updates on that plan.

Why It Matters for Brazilian Agencies and SMBs

For Brazilian marketing and customer service automation companies, signs that the federal government is politically prioritizing the AI agenda could, over the medium term, translate into funding lines, training programs or tax incentives for adopting domestic technology, but that still depends on concrete measures that were not announced at this meeting. It is worth following the next developments of the national strategy and the PBIA before basing investment planning on promises that, for now, remain at the stage of political discussion.