UWI And AMCHAM Sign Landmark AI Partnership To Boost National Skills
In a landmark move to advance artificial intelligence capacity and policy in the region, the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, and the American Chamber of Commerce of Trinidad & Tobago (AMCHAM T&T) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), strengthening the nation’s ability to build skills and embrace a rapidly digitising future.
Speaking at the ceremonial signing of the MOU at UWI’s St. Augustine Campus on Tuesday, Campus Principal Rose-Marie Belle Antoine said the initiative will help reposition the country from consumers of artificial intelligence to active providers and innovators.
« At the AIIC we have that mission of taking our region from being mainly consumers of technologies to actively creating indigenous and responsible AI solutions that have been carefully and deliberately designed and tailored for our own economic, social and development priorities. »
AMCHAM T&T CEO Nirad Tewarie noted that the move will create more employment opportunities for nationals.
« In addition to participating in the digital transformation committee, our conferences and events showcasing both what you’re doing here and exposing students and researchers to the wider business community and the conversations that we are having as businesses and hopefully therefore influencing the design thinking along the way. »
Mr Tewarie added that leveraging local talent and artificial intelligence can support public sectors, making them more commercially viable while also creating meaningful social impact.
« When we look around for who are the Caribbean people out there in the tech world, many graduates of the Faculty of Engineering already are at the big companies that we talk about in senior positions and in positions that, if we can create this space or the attraction for them, we can leverage the amount of brainpower that UWI has already produced and that Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean have to be able to do many, many different things. »
The partnership strengthens the bridge between research and application, policy and practice, while driving an important effort to upskill the national workforce.
