Your public data will be processed by Chinese artificial intelligence.

Written by Maria Heloisa Barbosa Borges

Published on 18/04/2026 at 14:39

Seja o primeiro a reagir!

On Friday (10), the federal government signed a cooperation agreement between the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), Serpro, and the Chinese company iFlytek to develop artificial intelligence applied to the Brazilian public sector. The agreement provides for the creation of Portuguese language models, translation and accessibility systems, cybersecurity applications, and the construction of data centers and secure clouds. Serpro, which operates the government’s structural systems and manages the data infrastructure for digital public services, will be the technical executor.

In practice, this means that AI developed with Chinese technology will be able to process data that currently passes through Serpro: income tax returns, INSS records, SUS information, civil identification data, and foreign trade documents. The interim Minister of MCTI, Luis Fernandes, was direct in justifying the agreement: “Countries that do not develop their own capacity will become dependent on external technologies, in a context where access may be limited.” The phrase is a direct reference to the restrictions the United States imposes on the export of chips and AI technologies to certain countries.

iFlytek is one of China’s largest artificial intelligence companies, specializing in voice recognition, machine translation, and natural language processing. The company has been targeted by American sanctions for alleged links to the Chinese government’s surveillance apparatus, which makes the agreement with Brazil politically sensitive at a time when relations between Washington and Beijing remain tense.

What does the agreement entail and why is Serpro central to it?

The protocol has six pillars: joint research, development of language models adapted to Brazilian Portuguese, cybersecurity applications, AI infrastructure (data centers and secure cloud), training of researchers, and technical exchange with scholarships.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

What does this mean for the citizen?

The question that no one is asking out loud is about privacy and data sovereignty.

If Serpro processes tax, social security, and health information of 220 million Brazilians, and the AI technology used in this processing is developed in partnership with a Chinese company, who guarantees that the data stays in Brazil?

The agreement mentions “technologies under public control” and “digital sovereignty,” but the specific data governance instruments still depend on future formalization.

The government argues that mastering the complete development cycle is exactly what prevents dependency.

Instead of buying ready-made AI from the United States or China, Brazil would develop its own models with knowledge transfer.

But the execution will depend on how the specific contracts are structured, and those details have not yet been disclosed.

The agreement also provides for training programs with researcher exchanges, courses, technical visits, and scholarships, focusing on training Brazilian specialists capable of operating and evolving the systems without permanently depending on the Chinese partner.

The government will use Chinese AI to process its income tax, INSS, and SUS data. Comment below: do you trust it?

0 Comentários

Mais recente

Mais antigos Mais votado

Feedbacks

Visualizar todos comentários

Your public data will be processed by Chinese artificial intelligence.

What does the agreement entail and why is Serpro central to it?

What does this mean for the citizen?

The oldest tree in the world, alive since before the birth of Jesus Christ, is cut down in a scientific study and the case changes environmental preservation rules.

Seen from space, an image taken by an astronaut shows an unlikely oasis in the Saudi Arabian desert, protected by a terrain that slows the advance of sand, surrounded by green circles, remnants of an extinct lake and nearly 10,000 years of preserved history.

While in Brazil a 10-story building takes 2 years to complete, in China a company stacks pre-fabricated modules and raises the entire building in just 28 hours and 45 minutes.

An entire island in the Pacific wants to surround itself with a colossal barrier against the ocean to try to escape increasingly violent waves and not be swallowed by the sea in the coming decades.

After ten days orbiting the Moon, science confirms that the astronauts of the Artemis II mission return with altered bodies.

With 7.4 trillion tons of artificial snow pumped in 10 years, an extreme operation could stabilize the West Antarctic ice sheet and prevent a sea level rise of more than 3 meters, but it would require snow cannons, ocean water, and energy on an almost industrial scale at the end of the world.

Peru built a tunnel at an altitude of 4,738 meters cutting through the Andes Mountains, and the road leading to it reaches 4,818 meters, making it the highest paved road in the entire world.

End of Generation Z and Alpha: a new generation emerges with babies exposed to screens from the first months, with constant digital stimuli that may impact attention, memory, language, and emotional intelligence.

Italy is suffering from a labor shortage and is desperately seeking people with 500,000 job openings by 2028, creating an exclusive visa outside of quotas for descendant Brazilians, accelerating hiring with 164,000 already in 2026, and paving the way for immediate legal work in the country.

The pink ankle bracelet project for aggressors of women gains momentum in Brazil and raises an urgent debate about combating domestic violence.

Amid the war that has lasted 4 years, Russia increases pressure within universities and even offers up to $56,000 to attract students to military service with drones.

The Navy tests the 4th Airbus H125 helicopter (IH-18) of the TH-X Project with a cargo hook and SAR winch; the aircraft is part of a batch of 15 units and progresses in VERTREP operations and search and rescue at the Naval Air Base of São Pedro da Aldeia.

Your public data will be processed by Chinese artificial intelligence.

What does the agreement entail and why is Serpro central to it?

What does this mean for the citizen?

The oldest tree in the world, alive since before the birth of Jesus Christ, is cut down in a scientific study and the case changes environmental preservation rules.

Seen from space, an image taken by an astronaut shows an unlikely oasis in the Saudi Arabian desert, protected by a terrain that slows the advance of sand, surrounded by green circles, remnants of an extinct lake and nearly 10,000 years of preserved history.

While in Brazil a 10-story building takes 2 years to complete, in China a company stacks pre-fabricated modules and raises the entire building in just 28 hours and 45 minutes.

An entire island in the Pacific wants to surround itself with a colossal barrier against the ocean to try to escape increasingly violent waves and not be swallowed by the sea in the coming decades.

After ten days orbiting the Moon, science confirms that the astronauts of the Artemis II mission return with altered bodies.

With 7.4 trillion tons of artificial snow pumped in 10 years, an extreme operation could stabilize the West Antarctic ice sheet and prevent a sea level rise of more than 3 meters, but it would require snow cannons, ocean water, and energy on an almost industrial scale at the end of the world.

Peru built a tunnel at an altitude of 4,738 meters cutting through the Andes Mountains, and the road leading to it reaches 4,818 meters, making it the highest paved road in the entire world.

Scientists discover that Titan may have the best waves in the Solar System.

Scientists are baffled by the discovery of a bizarre arachnid preserved in amber for 35 million years and reveal a surprising climatic past of Europe.

The bulb does not need to be replaced: an accessory compatible with any type of socket is starting to arrive in Brazilian homes and transforms ordinary light points into smart lighting without breaking walls, without renovations, and without rewiring the electrical installation.

Artemis II astronauts reveal incredible experience 252,000 miles from Earth, praise NASA technology, but admit to a scary moment during high-speed reentry.

End of Generation Z and Alpha: a new generation emerges with babies exposed to screens from the first months, with constant digital stimuli that may impact attention, memory, language, and emotional intelligence.

Italy is suffering from a labor shortage and is desperately seeking people with 500,000 job openings by 2028, creating an exclusive visa outside of quotas for descendant Brazilians, accelerating hiring with 164,000 already in 2026, and paving the way for immediate legal work in the country.

The pink ankle bracelet project for aggressors of women gains momentum in Brazil and raises an urgent debate about combating domestic violence.

Amid the war that has lasted 4 years, Russia increases pressure within universities and even offers up to $56,000 to attract students to military service with drones.

The Navy tests the 4th Airbus H125 helicopter (IH-18) of the TH-X Project with a cargo hook and SAR winch; the aircraft is part of a batch of 15 units and progresses in VERTREP operations and search and rescue at the Naval Air Base of São Pedro da Aldeia.