Speech
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva  ·  2026-08-11 23:03

Presidente Lula participa de reunião sobre Soberania Digital

From the marketplace, a person who is in civil society, right, within the scope of civil society. And they brought us something that you, since the beginning of your term, have had this sense of urgency regarding this issue for Brazilian development, right? We've been dealing with this, sir, since the beginning you ordered the PEBIA, right? Minister Luciana coordinates PEBI, the Brazilian artificial intelligence plan , but we're seeing that we're in a very critical moment, right? And one of the initial speeches was precisely that of Professor CEPIC, who brought up the geopolitical context and how each country is acting at this moment, identifying strategies that are closer to what Brazil can do, and others that perhaps are not the path Brazil should follow. If we want to have a greater degree of sovereignty, we have more self-control and capacity to determine our own future. And he brought this sense of providing this overview so that we can make decisions. And then came Mert Veloso, someone who worked in the market for so many years and returned to Brazil, right? We've talked a lot about talent retention, talent repatriation, and he's one of those cases, Mr. President. And he brought that sense of urgency, right? He brought up an important metaphor here , which is water falling, right? And how this increases at an exponential rate. And we're down to the final 5 minutes, where you could simply have a flood, and you could get stuck if you don't have an escape strategy. And this discussion about digital technology and the arrival of AI, he brought this sense of urgency and spoke a lot about how Brazil has a great capacity to take advantage of this leap if it knows how to coordinate actions given our strategic assets, right? He brought up the importance of this fundamental aspect of energy and also of the talents that we need to have a solid base to move forward, right? Next, Professor Edson Borim brought up this stack of A's, reinforcing the need to strengthen our computational capacity in Brazil. That brought a lot of it, didn't it? Our computing capacity in Brazil. We need to make progress in PB. That's already been planned. We're here, right? We've already made progress on this idea of ​​supercomputing; our public companies are advancing, we already have contracts with science and technology institutions that are buying supercomputers, but still on a scale that is not yet the scale that will allow you to have the capacity to supply both the public sector, the private sector, and research, which is what we are discussing a lot, Minister Luciana, within the scope of PEBIA, so that we can make GPUs. He also mentioned that Brazil has an opportunity to use already open models, but that we need to adapt them to our own data, that we need to train them with our own data to avoid a bias that, unfortunately, models trained abroad have, and that we need to bring this bias in-house. And that ties in completely with what Marília Marciel brought up, Marília, who is active in civil society discussing this, a super expert on how we generate value from data. And she highlighted the importance of Brazil having a gigantic database, but that we need to use this data strategically, right? She brought up, and she also brought up many issues regarding partnerships and what is being done in other countries. She gave a very interesting example from Africa, an opportunity Brazil has to support Africa and to think together with Africa about the geopolitical risk of data capture, which is essentially our intelligence. She brought up something I found very cool: combining data with the knowledge we have, and exploring how we can move forward. And then Professor Anderson Rocha, the president, brought up something that is central, precisely because of what Marila said, he presented the data that Brazil has, right? And he brought Brazil, and to some extent, we have knowledge and data in areas that are strategic, that perhaps no other country has, precisely in areas of agriculture, in areas of energy, in areas of health, right? right? He brought up several examples here that show Brazil is capable of making a great leap forward. So, Mr. President, I think all of this reinforces, and even Miram's speech at the end went in that direction, this sense of urgency. We talked a lot during these final 5 minutes of the meeting about how this is the moment for us to take our leap in development. I think we already had a lot of the things that were discussed here already mapped out, right? The question of data. We've been working very hard, Mr. President, and you were very precise in one of the meetings when you brought up PEBIA, the president said: "Where is Brazil's database?" You said that, right? We've been working on this for a while now, a national data infrastructure. Our public companies, of which the public data is held, are here, for a prior date. We've already been working on how to organize this data. Having the data isn't enough, is it? The question is how do you transform this data into intelligence and use it to actually solve problems? So I think, Mr. President, we leave here with a very important feeling about something inherent to the entire chain, to the foundational base. So I think three things were highlighted here: energy, we have clean energy, but we need to plan the expansion of our energy base. The Minister of Mines and Energy has already presented everything that is being considered in this important expansion process , including talent retention. And I think here, Mr. President, it's a metaphor that you like football, just like what's happening in football where our boys are leaving very young here, sometimes at 15, 13 years old, you see a good boy, and he's already going to Europe. Unfortunately, this is also happening to our talent in the digital field. And often these companies, with a low stipend, sometimes 2,000, but which is a lot of money for the student who is graduating there, they steal the talent and we can't retain that talent. We've talked a lot here about talent retention. Brazil has a great capacity for training and generates important talent, but we have to be careful not to lose this talent, and to avoid losing it, we need to create job opportunities here. And that's exactly what they brought in those dusty areas. So, fundamentally, that's it. I think there's the issue of infrastructure, which is very important, right? There was a lot of talk about supercomputing, data centers, how we do this sustainably, how we plan for it, and of course, the applications to solve major problems based on all the knowledge that Brazil already has. So, I think we leave here, Mr. President, with a feeling that we can look at this more strategically, think about the big challenges, and make decisions. The idea behind this meeting was so that we could make the decisions that will define the future of Brazil today, right? We're working on an idea of ​​how we can build a way for Brazil to take advantage of this great window of opportunity that this digital transformation is creating. We are living through an industrial revolution. I think there have been few moments in history where this has been seen. We, our generation here, these generations that are here today, are experiencing this. If Brazil misses this window of opportunity, we won't make the leap in development that we need. And you 're so worried about this leap in development. This is a central agenda item, and it's been said here, right? Minister Daril said so. Nowadays, this doesn't refer to just one sector anymore; it applies to all sectors of the economy. If it gets talked about too much, if we don't make that leap in quality, securing all that infrastructure and getting it into the applications, we're going to miss that window of opportunity. And I think we have all the elements here to make the right decisions. And the focus here now is for the state to be able to coordinate this agenda in a very strong partnership with the private sector, right? The state, together with the private sector, is coordinating this agenda so that Brazil doesn't miss this window of opportunity. So, Mr. President, I think this was a very important agenda; we've been sitting here for a few hours. This is the second time I've heard this recently, the president even mentioned it, Minister Wellon said the president really likes to listen to science, to listen to experts in order to make decisions. We recently held a workshop on critical minerals and rare earth elements, which was a fantastic opportunity—three hours of sitting and listening to experts. We're repeating this again with such a strategic agenda. And now, Mr. President, I'd like to hear from, you know, pass the word here to our Vice President, Dr. Geraldo Alco, who said that health was one of the areas that was highlighted here as having the capacity to solve health problems at an incredible speed, right? And we can hear from the vice president, who was also the minister of industry and commerce, because that's also a central area for our industry. ANIB is taking care of that, right, Mr. President? So, it would be very good to hear from you and then hear from the president. Thank you very much. Look, I greet President Lula, the ministers, the professors, and the specialists. She referred to healthcare, saying that AI can greatly improve access to healthcare, the quality of care, and reduce costs. I don't go to the extreme of Elon Musk, who, reading an interview with him today, refers to semi-immortality, right? I wouldn't go that far, but it's impressive the progress that can be made, in fact, in almost every aspect of reducing bureaucracy, right? Well, in the economy, in the new Brazilian industry, in NIB, it's mission four, which is the digital transition. So, we have a clear avenue ahead of us. I would like to congratulate the presenters, who were very informative and engaged in a very fruitful discussion. I am certain that we will reap good results from this. And the biggest limitation, President Lula, for artificial intelligence in the world is the lack of energy for all of this. That's the major limitation. And Brazil has abundant, renewable, clean energy, and rare earth resources, which are a fundamental input. We have a long road ahead of us . Congratulations on this meeting. I'm a clapper. Well, I wanted to start by apologizing to our guests , because we were late in getting started. It was scheduled for 4 PM. We start at 5 PM and will finish at 8 PM. I want to apologize to you for this. The second thing I wanted to tell you is that you can mark today on your calendar because after this meeting we're taking the final step to make Brazil its own boss. in the matter of artificial intelligence. In 2024, I was invited by Luciana to participate in the science professionals' congress , the National Conference on Science and Technology. And at that conference, I decided to challenge our scientists that it was time for Brazil to use its universities and its knowledge to propose a social intelligence policy to the world in the Portuguese language. We had even reached an agreement with the President of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, who wanted to partner with us to create an artificial intelligence for language processing. he knows? Well, I'd say, well, Brazilian and Spanish. The concrete fact is that we are discussing Estera taking responsibility for the government in working on this issue of artificial intelligence using the tools she had available, you know, at her disposal, especially using the data that CEPR and Data Prév had, and trying to convince the ministers that the data from each ministry does not belong to them, because there is a certain misconception that whoever has the data thinks it belongs to them. If someone takes it, they 'll lose something. So, health data belongs to the health sector, education data belongs to the education sector, military data belongs to the military sector, and so on. The data from the federal police belongs to the federal police. So we have a republic, you know, of data owners, and the state doesn't own the data. Just so you have an idea, once I called my chief of staff minister – today it's Amado, but it was General Fé – and I said, "F, no, no ." That had happened, no, it hadn't happened yet. I wanted a government-focused intelligence policy, because you have naval intelligence, army intelligence , air force intelligence, federal police intelligence, state public police intelligence, state military police intelligence, ABIM intelligence, treasury intelligence, and Federal Revenue Service intelligence. And the State has no intelligence. Look, whoever has the intelligence becomes more in control of their territory than the state, which owns everything. So I asked Féx to set up a cabinet so that we could bring everyone together and everyone could have a comprehensive understanding of the intelligence that the country needed. He assembled the cabinet, but it didn't work because the people weren't sharing their intelligence. Because intelligence is used as if it were a part of power. I use intelligence to gain something, to have power, to get more information, to be able to take advantage. That's how it works, and everything takes forever and forever. I subscribe to a philosophy, you know, which is this: what's important is what's essential, the rest is secondary. I learned this philosophy from the union. Why did I learn this philosophy? I was going to hold a union meeting, I was going to put together a big bulletin and tear into the government, curse Delfineto, you know, everyone. And the main thing, which was the convocation of the assembly, I put at the end, I scheduled this assembly for such and such a Friday. It turns out that the worker would take the bulletin, enter the factory with it , and when he got to the gate, he would throw it away because he wasn't going to take the bulletin inside the factory. One day I said, "How come these workers are n't going to the assembly? We invite them in the open, we invite them in the open." I discovered that the most important thing, which was the date of the assembly, I put it at the end, the most important thing, which was the date of the assembly, look, I put it at the end, the worker hadn't read the date of the assembly and threw the bulletin away. So I reversed it, I started making bulletins putting the headline first, assembly, Friday, such and such day, at 7 pm. That's when we started filling the Vila CR state with people to participate in the assembly. Here in this matter of social intelligence it's the same thing. How was it with the issue of critical rare earth minerals? We've been discussing it for two and a half years, talking and talking and we haven't taken the step that needs to be taken. We have to decide what we're going to do. I just told Mir now. It's time to call another meeting, smaller than that one, so we can say what we're going to do, because until we make a decision, We don't get it approved in the Senate, and people end up taking over things in this country. When we get it approved in the Senate, I don't have anything left for us to take care of. And this applies to artificial intelligence. Nobody expects Brazil to step aside. Nobody is going to stand up for Brazil to sit down. Everyone wants to do what they can to win. And we are the ones who have to be interested. And instead of looking at what is grandiose, what China has, what is grandiose, we have what we have, what we can use, and start looking a little at what we can offer the world. And we have very important things to offer the world. Brazilian things. Brazilian things. We have a model of smallholdings in Brazil that is exemplary. We have agricultural production that is an example to the world. That is, we managed to increase production 10 times without doubling the size of the land. The investment in research, in genetics, you know, in technology, in the urban center we say: "No, but Brazil can't just be an exporter of commodities, exporting soybeans, corn, " Iron ore, that's fine." But we never stop to ask how much technology is in soybeans today , how much genetics is in a cow, you know, that used to give 3 liters of milk, now it gives 80. Its udder doesn't even fit between the cow's legs, it can barely walk. That's investment, that's knowledge, that's research. So, why am I telling you all this ? Because in 2010 I left Brasília, I went to ITA (Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica) to visit the construction of a Brazilian turbine. The ethanol turbine would be the first Brazilian turbine produced in Brazil. It was everything I wanted in life. It was Brazil with a turbine. It was the fifth country in the world to manufacture a turbine. I went there in 2000, 2009, I think it was 2010, I saw the turbine, I was with the Minister of Mines and Energy and I said: "Look, this will only move forward if the ministry places an order." For what order? So that we can use these turbines to produce energy in the most remote places to bring light. For everyone. I left office, I went away. Of course, everything was being done. When I took office, 13 years later, the first question I asked Fábio was : "Where's the turbine?" It stopped. Oh, there's no money. I took this woman there, saw the turbine, and ordered money to be put in to finish it. But we were stopped for 13 years. We could be the turbine manufacturer today. We could be the manufacturer. So we resumed now. Now the turbine is ready. It's ready now. And more importantly, it can be used with ethanol so that it can produce energy in communities of 2,000, 3,000 people. It directly addresses that. Now, in order to scale up, to offer it in Latin America, to offer it in South America, to offer it in the African continent, which has a very serious energy problem, we need to scale up. And scaling up means that the government will have to place orders. There's no other way. In other words, if we want to produce on a large scale for export and To conquer the world, we have to believe in ourselves. So, this meeting you all participated in today is the definitive beginning of our entry into the age of artificial intelligence. There's no turning back. You can be sure that the work Luciana did, the researchers in her ministry, the work she did and that the ministries worked on, is crowned today with your presence. You know why? Because you came here to say the following: it's possible, we have the conditions, we have the intelligence, we have prepared people, and we're not going to sell to Real Madrid, we're not going to sell to Barcelona, ​​we're going to let them play at Corinthians, we're going to let them play at Ponte Preta, at Bragantino, at Botafogo, at Vasco, we're not going to let them go abroad so we can value this country. So, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. You don't know the benefit you did for me, coming here and saying things I already heard from Ester. I said, I'm going to be in charge of this, Ester, for God's sake. And not just the partnership between us, the government and the companies, but between us, the Brazilian universities, the institutions of The society they want, and the businessmen, so we can create what is ours. What can't happen is this, folks. The other day I brought Korea, the president of Korea came to visit Brazil. And since we were very well received , even though there aren't any little goats, there aren't any, I'm a meat seller because wherever I go, I'm selling airplanes, I'm selling cars, I'm selling Eternal, I'm selling... I spent more than six months with a plastic car in my hand, telling the world that Brazil will be the first country to produce a green car. The prototype I was driving was white. I had it painted green. I mean, it was green. I remember I went to many countries, I made many African ambassadors cry, you know, in my conferences in Geneva talking about how ASCAA could benefit from ethanol production, you know? I got tired of spending my life doing that and it didn't work. I didn't have my green car. Then I went to sell meat to Korea. No, you have to buy our meat. Japan has to buy our meat. And then At lunchtime, I was imagining that we offered the Korean guy a barbecue . Do you know what we offered him? A hearty soup and shrimp bobó. And he left just like that, just like at the barbecue. I even told Márcio to go to São Paulo. And do you know what the president's greatest desire was? To go to the union where I was president, enter the room where I worked, sit on the sofa he thought was mine, and take the picture I used to take. And he did all that and didn't even get my meat. So I'm telling you, you came here today and gave us the certainty that we are ready, not to compete with China, to compete with the United States, but to compete with ourselves and do what we have that's important: to do artificial intelligence. Therefore, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for your participation. I want Professor Anderson Rocha here; on the 21st I'll be at the station. You can get ready to go there. I'll be at Praça da Estação on the 21st, right? I want to thank Anderson Rocha... Marco Aurélio Cepique, Edson Borim, María Maciel, and Mateus Podovani. Thank you for your collaboration, and thank you to the ministers, everyone. A hug and see you another day.