How do you implement AI when there's no power to turn on a computer?
En Camagüey, mientras millones de cubanos soportan más de veinte horas diarias sin electricidad ni conexión a internet, las autoridades anunciaron la creación de un grupo de desarrollo de software orientado a la inteligencia artificial. La iniciativa, respaldada por la universidad local y el Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Medio Ambiente, aspira a transformar sectores como la salud, la meteorología y el turismo. Es una paradoja que la historia reconoce bien: la proclamación de futuros luminosos en medio de presentes oscuros, donde la distancia entre la promesa institucional y la vida cotidiana revela, más que cualquier estadística, el estado profundo de una sociedad.
- Cuba registró el 14 de mayo un déficit eléctrico histórico de 2.174 megavatios, dejando al setenta por ciento del país sin luz de forma simultánea.
- En algunos municipios los apagones superan las veinte horas diarias, y el país tiene la conexión a internet más lenta de América Latina, con apenas 7,21 Mbps.
- En ese contexto, Camagüey lanzó un proyecto de transformación digital inteligente con participación de universidades, institutos politécnicos y la Unión de Informáticos de Cuba.
- Los impulsores del proyecto prometen ecosistemas digitales capaces de optimizar diagnósticos médicos y gestionar sectores estratégicos, mientras los hospitales operan en penumbra y sin medicamentos básicos.
- La viabilidad real de implementar sistemas de inteligencia artificial sin infraestructura eléctrica ni conectividad estable permanece como la pregunta que nadie en los salones de reuniones responde.
En la ciudad provincial de Camagüey, las autoridades anunciaron el viernes la formación de un Grupo de Desarrollo de Software con el mandato de desplegar inteligencia artificial en sectores clave de la región. El grupo, coordinado por la delegación provincial del Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Medio Ambiente y la Universidad de Camagüey Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz, quedó integrado formalmente en el llamado Proyecto de Transformación Digital Inteligente. La profesora Ireimis Leguen de Varona describió el esfuerzo como de alto impacto, orientado a construir un ecosistema digital unificado para resolver problemas en salud, meteorología, industria inteligente, educación y turismo.
El proyecto reunió a estudiantes de la Facultad de Informática y Ciencias Exactas, del Instituto Politécnico de Informática, de la Universidad de Ciencias Médicas y de la Unión de Informáticos de Cuba en la provincia. Reynaldo Alonso Reyes, al frente de esa organización en Camagüey, subrayó que la transformación digital que impulsan atraviesa todos los sectores estratégicos del territorio, con énfasis en ética, equidad e inclusión en el uso de la inteligencia artificial.
El anuncio llegó en el peor momento posible. Cuba atravesaba una de sus crisis eléctricas más graves en décadas: el 14 de mayo se registró un déficit histórico de 2.174 megavatios, dejando sin luz al setenta por ciento del país. El ministro de Energía reconoció que Cuba operó sin reservas de combustible entre diciembre de 2025 y mayo de 2026. En el municipio de Minas, los cortes promediaron 21,3 horas diarias. La infraestructura de internet era igualmente frágil: durante un apagón nacional en marzo, el tráfico cayó un sesenta y cinco por ciento, y en mayo el país registraba apenas 7,21 Mbps, la velocidad más baja de América Latina.
Yailé Caballero Mota, presentada como experta mundial en inteligencia artificial, animó a los jóvenes participantes diciéndoles que ellos serían quienes implementarían estos sistemas. Entre las propuestas más avanzadas figuraba una base de datos para construir modelos predictivos de diagnóstico y tratamiento de enfermedades, una promesa de progreso médico en hospitales que funcionan a oscuras y sin medicamentos esenciales. La brecha entre lo que se anuncia en las salas de reuniones y lo que se vive en los hogares y centros de salud de la isla nunca había sido tan visible.
In the provincial city of Camagüey, officials announced the formation of a Software Development Group this past Friday, tasked with deploying artificial intelligence across key sectors of the region. The initiative arrived with peculiar timing: Cuba was in the grip of one of its worst electrical crises on record, with power deficits exceeding 2,000 megawatts for stretches of May and into June. The country also held the distinction of having the slowest internet in Latin America. Millions of Cubans were living without electricity or connectivity for more than twenty hours each day.
The group, coordinated by the provincial office of Cuba's Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment and the University of Camagüey Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz, was formally integrated into what officials called the Intelligent Digital Transformation Project. Radio Rebelde reported the announcement on Friday. The university professor Ireimis Leguen de Varona described the effort as high-impact, saying its purpose was to build a unified, intelligent digital ecosystem capable of solving problems in the province's strategic sectors. She outlined an initial phase targeting health, meteorology, smart industry, education, publishing management, and intelligent tourism.
The project drew participants from multiple institutions: students from the University of Camagüey's Faculty of Computer Science and Exact Sciences, the Máximo Gómez Báez Pre-University Institute of Exact Sciences, the Polytechnic Institute of Computer Science, the University of Medical Sciences, and the provincial chapter of Cuba's Union of Computer Professionals. Reynaldo Alonso Reyes, who heads that union in the province, said the digital transformation dimension his organization oversees cuts across all strategic sectors of the territory, aiming to achieve ethics, equity, inclusion, and transparency in artificial intelligence use.
Yet the ground beneath these ambitions was collapsing. On May 14th, Cuba recorded a historic power deficit of 2,174 megawatts, leaving roughly seventy percent of the country without electricity simultaneously. The energy minister, Vicente de la O Levy, acknowledged that Cuba had operated without fuel reserves between December 2025 and May 2026. In some municipalities, blackouts stretched beyond twenty hours daily. The municipality of Minas had recorded an average of 21.3 hours of daily power cuts in 2024—the highest in the nation at that time. On a Saturday night in early June, sixty-five percent of Cuba lost power.
Internet infrastructure was equally strained. During a nationwide blackout on March 16th, internet traffic across Cuba dropped sixty-five percent. By May 2026, the country registered speeds of just 7.21 megabits per second on the global Speedtest index—the slowest in all of Latin America and among the slowest anywhere. The state telecommunications company ETECSA acknowledged that its backup batteries covered only a few hours of outages, meaning blackouts left millions without signal or internet access.
Yailé Caballero Mota, presented as a world expert on artificial intelligence, addressed the young participants with words that might have sounded inspiring in another context: they were the ones who would implement these AI systems, she told them, and they should understand how important they were. She also announced that among the most advanced proposals was a database, to be validated through doctoral research, that would allow designers to build a predictive model for optimizing diagnosis and treatment of diseases. It was a promise of medical progress in a health system that currently lacked basic medications and operated hospitals in darkness.
The contradiction was stark and difficult to look away from. A nation without reliable power or internet was launching initiatives to build intelligent digital ecosystems. Students were being asked to implement artificial intelligence in an environment where computers could not reliably be powered on. The gap between the ambition stated in meeting rooms and the reality experienced in homes and hospitals across the island had never been wider.
Notable Quotes
Build a unified, intelligent digital ecosystem capable of solving problems in the province's strategic sectors— Professor Ireimis Leguen de Varona, University of Camagüey
Cuba operated without fuel reserves between December 2025 and May 2026— Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why announce an AI initiative now, when the power grid is collapsing?
That's the question everyone's asking. The timing suggests either disconnection from reality or a deliberate choice to project normalcy and progress despite the crisis.
But how do you actually build and test AI systems without electricity?
You don't, not at scale. You can do some work on paper, in theory, with generators if you have fuel. But deploying these systems across health, meteorology, tourism—that requires infrastructure that simply doesn't exist right now.
Is this about optics, then? Making it look like the government is solving problems?
Partly. But there's also genuine belief among some academics and technologists that this work matters for Cuba's future. They're not wrong about that. The problem is the present is consuming all available resources and attention.
What happens to the students involved in this project?
They learn, they develop skills, they build something on paper. Some of it might eventually be useful. But many will likely leave the country if they can, seeking places where their work can actually run.
Is there any chance this succeeds?
In five or ten years, if the power crisis stabilizes and internet infrastructure improves, some of these projects might become real. But right now, it's hope without the foundation to support it.