Barbados must begin developing its own artificial intelligence systems and digital platforms to safeguard its data and future economic independence.
This is the view of Steven Williams, principal consultant behind two new platforms, as he spoke at a media launch of Aria by Acroknight and Aegis DPO at the Barbados Coalition of Service Industries, Manor Lodge, St Michael.
“We basically give way too much to international companies in terms of being able to actually generate revenue,” Williams said, adding that the Caribbean continues to rely heavily on tourism while overlooking its potential in technology.
He warned that the global shift toward artificial intelligence has intensified what he described as a “fight for data,” noting that many of the dominant platforms are foreign-owned.
“If we keep just giving foreign platforms our data, we create no independence and intellectual capacity of our own,” he stressed.
Williams pointed to the solution of building “locally grown” or “locally customised” software, pointing out that other regions were already moving in that direction. “Right now the world is moving
in a way where each country is now looking at its own resilience . . . not just from the perspective
of hurricanes, but software sovereignty,” he explained.
The first platform, Aegis DPO, is designed to assist data protection and compliance officers in managing breaches and meeting legal obligations.
“If you are in the middle of a breach, you can communicate with the platform . . . it tells you things such as what time is left,” said Williams while referencing the built-in 72-hour countdown required by law.
He added that the system also helped organisations determine whether a breach needed to be reported and guided them on the information to be disclosed.
“It then does an estimate if you should communicate, what you should communicate,” he said.
The second platform, Aria by Acroknight, focuses on secure, localised artificial intelligence and Williams described it as “an on premise AI chatbot that you could now load up with your own data, your company data, and then ask questions based on that knowledge”. (DDS)
