The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian software developer yesterday said data storage represents the first Artificial Intelligence (AI) related growth area that this nation can exploit for economic advantage.

Duran Humes, Plato Alpha’s chief executive, told Tribune Business ahead of his company’s January 24 AI forum that attention must be paid to all the electronic data The Bahamas has been gathering over the past several years through its digitisation drive.

“Data and personalisation are key areas for AI growth because The Bahamas has been collecting a lot of data in the past and, recently, we are pretty heavy into the digitisation of that data, meaning taking paper and taking it digital,” he added.

“So, as we collect more and more data, it becomes ever-more important to us to actually go ahead and say: ‘What are some of the things we can do with this data?’ and what type of insights can be gathered from this data. So, using AI to help the data analytics to understand it and ask questions about that particular data set would be critical.

“Whether it is the public or the private sector, both parties should be working conjunctively together to actually make something a bit more effective and that will also help in terms of the communication between the public and private sector, which is something that is a bit lacking today.”

Concerns about AI still linger given its potential to replace human workers, and Mr Humes said there is both a bit of “truth” and irrational fear over this. While some people will be replaced, this also presents an opportunity for some individuals to “upskill themselves”.

To shed more light on AI’s possibilities for the Bahamian economy, Plata Alpha is bringing in two external specialists to expose more Bahamians to the potential benefits.

“Shaun VanWeelden leads operations for OpenAI’s human data team, providing a key ingredient to ChatGPT, one of the most talked about forms of generative AI. Onassis Nottage is a managing director for RSLT Lab in Leiderdorp, Netherlands, that works with big data and AI, and has emerged as a leader in the arena,” Plato Alpha said in a statement.

Both men are set to be the keynote speakers for Plato Alpha Design’s event, ‘How AI can help Bahamian businesses’, which is due to be held at Crypto Isle on Wednesday, January 24, at 6 pm. Mr VanWeelden said that, despite concerns, the benefits of incorporating AI in a company’s day-to-day operations far outweigh the threats.

“AI will allow for greater productivity in our work and, like past technological updates, that will change the nature of work and require us to develop new skills,” he said. “I believe AI will lower the barrier to executing on business ideas, making them less capital intensive and, as a result, I’m hopeful we will see many talented folks in the Bahamas start or expand their businesses much further than they would have otherwise been capable of without AI assistance.

“We should also expect that, in time, AI technology will lower barriers to and improve tailored education, legal and medical insights, thus enabling a more skilled and healthy workforce.... Seek out the micro moments of AI usage, versus making it a whole big thing that you feel you need to do. The rest will come in time.”EN-GB