An artificial Intelligence expert is advising that Trinidad and Tobago must move boldly toward greater innovation noting that the future is already here, particularly when it comes to artificial intelligence, data collection, and data usage and that the country must step confidently into the new era of digital transformation.
00:00Yes, there's a risk in AI, but there's so much potential. I think that is what we want to focus on.
00:05And certainly there's a goal and objective by myself, through the Prime Minister, to build the human capacity and build the human intelligence of Trinidad and its citizens.
00:16Public Administration and Artificial Intelligence Minister Dominic Smith speaking with TV6 News after he had participated in a panel that examined several issues related to AI during the Caribbean debut of the Fujitsu Activate Now at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain.
00:35Employment, the future of employment, with regard to AI in particular, how do you look at that in the context of the government's message of sustainable employment as you have the opposition making issues of concern about the government's reform exercise with CPEP, URP, etc.?
00:57I don't want to comment too much about that aspect. What I can comment on relates to the upskilling and the retooling of the public servants.
01:05I think that is a big part of our agenda as MP and AI, and the public and the public servants can look forward to a lot of retooling initiatives, upskilling initiatives, initiatives that will allow them to create and be a part of the new economies that the globe is embarking upon.
01:21The theme of the Fujitsu event was Powering Regional Progress, Technology, Trust and Transformation.
01:28In the initial phase of what you're talking about, could there be, because I think one of the concerns globally is that while you have persons saying yes, you will have new jobs being created, but there are other jobs that may be at risk in terms of AI implementation, how do you deal with such concerns?
01:48I think as a population in general, we are not alone in terms of the anxiety that AI will bring, and it's a fact that AI will disrupt jobs.
01:59But the focus of the government is to, how do we prepare our citizens for the jobs of the future? And that comes from, one, building awareness.
02:07The minister responsible for artificial intelligence said there will be active stakeholder engagements and, quote, campaigns and activities that will support their personal development, end quote.
02:19So from the public service perspective, all of the initiatives, a lot of the initiatives will be about human capacity development, and I think that is where we need to really hone in on.
02:29You know, how do we participate in the potential of AI? And yes, there will be risks, but our policy is to augment the technology, augment the labor force, and that will be down to efficiencies, it will be down to reduced costs, and most importantly, it will benefit the society at large.
02:46And while there tends to be much focus on Minister Smith's AI portfolio, TV6 News has sought an update from him about his other ministerial portfolio.
02:55In terms of public administration, that's a major responsibility that you have.
03:00I don't want to separate it two, because the reality is that through the vision of the prime minister, we've combined MPA and what was formerly MDT, and the real purpose of that is that we want to reap the rewards of digital transformation through the public service.
03:14The public service, you know, we have very specific functions related to HR, related to the distribution of services towards citizens, and so we want to be able to, as much as possible, utilize technology to provide those services.
03:25As the finance minister is due to deliver the government's budget for fiscal 2026 on Monday, Minister Smith said the population can expect a lot of short and medium-term initiatives from the Ministry of Public Administration and AI.
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