TechFlow news — On February 28, according to the National Bitcoin Office of El Salvador, The Bitcoin Office, the government has passed a groundbreaking artificial intelligence bill aligned with President Bukele's economic freedom policies. This legislation aims to provide regulatory clarity and certainty for the AI industry, specifically covering the development and innovation of open-source models.
This new legislative framework ensures appropriate protection for both proprietary and open-source AI systems, placing special emphasis on legal safeguards for open-source development. It marks the world's first national-level legislation explicitly extending legal protection to open-source AI development. While proprietary models will continue to benefit from existing international protection mechanisms, this draft establishes, for the first time at the national level, a clear legal framework for open-source AI development.
Article 19 of the new bill creates the most comprehensive legal protections for AI developers in Latin America and globally, including sandbox protections and safeguards against third-party misuse. The bill explicitly states that proprietary models will retain benefits from existing international protections, while clearly extending legal safeguards to open-source AI development for the first time.
Under the bill, the government of El Salvador will establish an AI Laboratory to promote the development, research, and application of AI within government agencies and services, improving citizens' quality of life through measures such as optimizing traffic flow, monitoring water quality, and enhancing geothermal resource utilization. The laboratory will also provide resources and cutting-edge technologies to educational groups and institutions to strengthen domestic engineering capabilities. Having already implemented a zero-tax policy on AI innovation and development, El Salvador positions itself as a forward-looking player in the global AI landscape, placing the principles of innovation, excellence, and open-source collaboration at the core of its policy agenda.
