SOVEREIGNTY, PIAUÍ'S ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AS A POLITICAL, TECHNOLOGICAL, AND EPISTEMIC MILESTONE OF DIGITAL DECOLONIALITY IN BRAZIL

Abstract

This article examines the creation of SoberanIA, a groundbreaking initiative by the Piauí State Government that establishes the first large-scale Artificial Intelligence platform developed entirely in Portuguese and under state control. The research focuses on understanding how the initiative asserts itself as a strategy for technological sovereignty and digital autonomy in the face of global dynamics of domination, confronting persistent structures of digital coloniality, and reconfiguring national public administration. The research adopts a qualitative, exploratory approach, anchored in the foundations of the historical-dialectical method, based on documentary analysis and a literature review. Data interpretation was guided by content analysis, focusing on the categories of technological sovereignty, digital decoloniality, and administrative efficiency. The findings reveal that SoberanIA breaks the cycle of technological dependence historically imposed on Brazil by operating with its own infrastructure, public governance, and databases aligned with the country's cultural, legal, and social specificities. More than a symbol of resistance to Eurocentric algorithmic logic, the platform inaugurates a new paradigm of state action, with tangible impacts in strategic areas such as health, security, and education. Its implementation within the Brazilian Artificial Intelligence Plan and its viability to digital inclusion policies reinforce its potential as a model of public innovation anchored in decolonial perspectives. It is concluded that SovereignAI not only triggers a shift in the field of emerging technologies in Brazil, but also repositions the State as an active agent in the formulation of ethically oriented and socially inclusive digital solutions.