18/06/2026 18:16 - Tecnologia
Debate conceptual entre inteligencia artificial y humanidad, con un robot y una persona en lados opuestos de una mesa, símbolos de justicia y tecnología, iluminación dramática en tonos azules y dorados que representa la tensión entre regulación e innovación
Argentina's President Javier Milei, the libertarian economist who took office in December 2023, responded with a philosophical-practical argument to the warnings from Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari (author of the bestselling book "Sapiens") about the risks of granting legal personhood to companies managed by artificial intelligence. The controversy, which unfolded through the Financial Times, touches on a central issue in a bill the Government is promoting in Congress.
Harari had warned that this measure could create "AI States", where non-human corporations govern without direct accountability. Milei counterargued that "granting legal personality to AI companies doesn't mean unleashing Terminator's Judgment Day", but rather "offering the refuge that James Watt needed 200 years ago", allowing imagination to develop freely.
The Minister of Deregulation, Federico Sturzenegger (a former Central Bank president and renowned economist), expanded on the defense in an interview with Bloomberg Línea. His central argument: "If the AI breaks the law and the company is shut down or bankrupt, it's like the AI's own death".
The official stated that "artificial intelligence is much more concerned about staying within the law than a human", because its survival depends on the company not being closed. Additionally, he defended the limited liability scheme as a necessary condition for capitalism's development.
"Let's not get ahead of our time, let's not regulate out of fears about what we thought could happen; let's regulate if we have a problem."
The AI debate is framed within a more ambitious project: the "Super RIGI", a law that grants tax benefits, exchange incentives, and legal guarantees for investments in digital and technological infrastructure for 30 years.
Context for foreign readers: RIGI (Régimen de Incentivos para las Grandes Inversiones) is Argentina's large investment incentive regime, originally designed for mining and energy sectors. The "Super RIGI" extends these benefits to technology, data centers, AI, and biotechnology.
According to Revista Anfibia, Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT) announced in 2025 an investment of USD 25 billion for a data center in Patagonia (Argentina's vast southern region known for its natural resources and stable climate). Meanwhile, Elon Musk confirmed the arrival of Tesla and a mega data center in Argentina. YPF (Argentina's state-owned oil company, privatized in the 1990s and renationalized in 2012) signed a strategic partnership with Tesla on June 16, 2026, one day before the bill's debate in committees.
Sturzenegger confirmed that Route 14, known as the Mercosur Route (a key highway connecting Argentina with Brazil and Uruguay), will be the first enabled for autonomous vehicles once completed. "Those cars don't crash, they can never have head-on collisions", the minister argued regarding road safety.
| Project | Benefit | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Original RIGI | Tax and exchange incentives | Mining, energy investments |
| Super RIGI | 30-year regulatory stability, foreign tribunals | Data centers, AI, biotechnology |
| Automated Companies | Autonomous legal personhood | Companies without human intervention |
The Government bases these initiatives on improving macroeconomic indicators:
It's a legal concept that allows organizations (companies, foundations, associations) to have their own assets, incur obligations, and be sued as if they were persons. Until now, all legal persons required human beings in their control structure. The Milei-Sturzenegger project proposes that a company can exist and operate without any human being behind it, managed entirely by algorithms.
Sturzenegger explained that Argentina seeks to replicate in the 21st century what Ireland did in the 20th: offer an attractive tax, fiscal, and property rights framework to attract investments. The example is Apple, which operates in Ireland and collects royalties on every iPhone sold, paying taxes there.
The minister stated that "Argentina has everything to gain" in this bet, where neither Europe (over-regulated) nor the United States (restrictive jurisprudence) offer the conditions that Buenos Aires could provide.
Sources: Infobae, Bloomberg Línea, Revista Anfibia
Alfredo S. Quiroga
