Editorial | AI policy critical for CARICOM

The administration’s plan to develop a national policy on artificial intelligence (AI) is a sensible development.

But as we suggested previously, Jamaica should go further with this initiative. It should attempt to make it a regional project, embracing all the members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), whose aim is to become a genuine single market and economy.

Recent developments in the community suggest that CARICOM may finally be breaking the logjams to achieving that goal. In that respect, the rapid evolution of regenerative AI (artificial intelligence that learns, evolves and refines), and the impact it is destined to have on the global economy and human existence, makes it logical that these technologies be subject to a single, clearly aligned policy within a seamless regional community.

Jamaica and its CARICOM partners have long had access to elements of artificial intelligence, whether in the region’s workplaces or social spaces. Indeed, this country’s prime minister, Andrew Holness, has long been an advocate of the embrace of AI to accelerate the island’s development.

However, the pace of recent advances in AI technologies that have enhanced the capacity of machines to learn – including the possibility, down the road, of independent/autonomous thought – is causing policymakers to think about how economies and societies should interface with the emerging intelligences.

Indeed, some people, including many who are on the cutting edge of AI development, fear that if left unregulated, these systems could pose existential threats to human societies.

Even the bosses of OpenAI, whose ChatGPT ushered in a deep appreciation of the potential of artificial intelligence systems to operate with almost human-like qualities, have advised policymakers to be cognisant of, and proactive against the potential downside of the technology.

“In terms of both potential upsides and downsides, super intelligence will be more powerful than other technologies humanity has had to contend with in the past,” the company’s co-founders, Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever, and the CEO, Sam Altman, wrote recently. “We can have a dramatically more prosperous future; but we have to manage risk to get there. Given the possibility of existential risk, we can’t just be reactive.”

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The European Union has already drafted regulations for the management of AI, although some critics argue that the proposed rules are too restrictive, which could stifle innovation and cause the bloc to lose ground to technological competitors. Obviously, the right balance has to be found between using these technologies for good and establishing guardrails against the deeper risks that they pose.

Except for largely perfunctory concerns about the threats posed by AI to the island’s business process outsourcing – which most players claim can be managed by moving the industry upstream – there has been as yet no serious discussion of how to respond to, or adopt, regenerative AI. The same applies to the rest of CARICOM.

Which is why The Gleaner had proposed that the issue be placed on the agenda of the summit earlier this month of regional leaders. That, unfortunately, did not happen.

What the heads of government agreed to, however, was to, from next March, remove most barriers to citizens of CARICOM member states living in each other’s countries. This proposed free movement of labour will be the second critical leg in the creation of a single market and economy, after the already largely operable right of regional firms to establish and operate anywhere in the single market. Which, essentially, is the free movement of capital.

With respect to Jamaica, Dr Dana Morris Dixon, the island’s minister for digital transformation, said that a task force she is about to establish will conduct research into AI to “provide an evidence-based foundation for the development of a national AI policy”.

She added: “The task force’s research will comprehensively analyse the current state of AI in Jamaica, including research and development activities, adoption levels, and challenges faced by various sectors of the economy. The task force is also expected to identify opportunities for the adoption of AI technologies, potential areas of economic growth and development, and potential social impacts.”

That is good. It is, however, not enough if Jamaica and the rest of CARICOM expect to operate as a single regional market – and do so efficiently and effectively.

If AI is ubiquitous in business, as the early signs suggest that it will be, it makes little sense if policies relating to the technology differ in the several territories that are ostensibly part of the same market and working to become a single economy. Firms in Port of Spain, or Bridgetown or St John’s should expect the same standards with respect to how they engage with the technology across jurisdictions. For that matter, given the proposed free movement of people in the community, the same should apply to how member states manage information they hold on each other’s citizens.

Indeed, the issue of the management of digital information across the community was among the issues addressed by Avinash Persaud’s task force in transforming CARICOM’s economy. Dr Morris Dixon has an opportunity to take the matter of creating a single ICT space – including policies around AI – the next step by pushing for it to be urgently accelerated on the regional agenda.