Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are two of the fastest growing areas in tech, and they are transforming how we live and work. AI and robotics entrepreneur and enthusiast, Matthew Stone, discusses, among other things: how AI and robotics are replacing current roles in the job market, whilst also opening up new opportunities; the skills and jobs that are currently in demand, and how Caribbean organisations start to position themselves to leverage AI; and how he was able to pull off the autonomous drones light show that was one of the highlights of Jamaica’s 60th independence anniversary celebrations.

 

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Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are widely considered key developments that are driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution, along with high-speed internet, big data analytics and cloud technology. However, there seems to be more emphasis being placed on the latter three drivers and the impact that they are having, without realising that to some degree, it is the synthesisation of those three areas that drive AI and automation. In other words, high-speed internet, big data analytics and cloud technology tend to be crucial inputs for AI and automation.

Here on the Podcast, we have been trying to highlight AI and automation to increase our collective understanding of these areas – beyond the hype, and more importantly, to help us to be in a position to leverage these technologies to find solutions to our problems. We have thus had a few conversations, such as with Matthew Cowen, where we provided an overview of AI and highlighted AI-related several issues and considerations, and thereafter, a discussion on the ethics of AI with Gratiana Fu.

In this episode, we are continuing our exploration of AI and automation with an AI practitioner and budding entrepreneur, who has started an AI and robotics business and is passionate about AI education and development in the Caribbean region.

 

Introducing our guest

Matthew Stone is the Chief Executive Office of Stone Technologies Limited, an AI and robotics company, based in Jamaica. He and his team have been focusing on autonomous drones and computer vision research, including robot perception and number recognition on obscure images using deep learning. Matthew is also a Researcher and Lecturer of Reinforcement Learning, a subset of Ai, in which he is currently pursuing a doctorate.

Matthew is also the Founder of the Jamaica Artificial Intelligence Association (JAIA), a small community of like minds that is seeking to develop AI education in Jamaica and facilitate collaboration among AI practitioners and enthusiasts, along with the collective and continued capacity building of its members.

 

Insights into our conversation

With AI and robotics, it is easy to focus on their ‘science fiction-ness’ – the features and capabilities that we have only seen in the movies or read in books – and somehow think that they are still very far removed from our lives and environment. However, this discussion with Matthew emphasises that the real-world impact of AI and robotics is a lot closer than we think. For example, for Jamaica’s 60th independence anniversary celebrations this past August, Matthew helped organise a drone light show, which used autonomous drones, and not the remote-controlled ones with which we are familiar. Moreover, there are several practical applications of autonomous drones that currently exist and are being refined, to improve their ability to make decisions based without direct human intervention.

 

 

Further, it would be prudent for us not to deny the impact that AI and automation are already having across virtually all sectors and all segments of our society and economy. However, there is a concern that because we are not as aware or educated as we should be, we cannot be more proactive, and so we are losing opportunities to shape and guide the impact of AI and robotics on us and our societies.

Below are key questions that were posed to Matthew during our conversation.

  1. To start us off, Matthew, tell us a bit about yourself and how your interest developed in AI.
  2. Why did you start Stone Technologies Limited, and what is the need or problem you are trying to solve?
  3. How did you get to do the light show as part of Jamaica’s 60th-anniversary celebration?
  4. How would you address the job losses already occurring in the Caribbean region due to organisations leveraging AI and robotics?
  5. How could education and capacity building be improved to better address the future of work, and careers in AI and robotics?
  6. What are some of the jobs available in AI and robotics? What are the skills that are currently in demand?
  7. Where do you think are the opportunities for AI in the Caribbean region?
  8. Why did you start the Jamaica Artificial Intelligence Association, and what do you hope it will be able to achieve?

 

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Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages, or via Twitter, @ICTPulse.

Also, if you or a member of your network is interested in joining us for an episode, do get in touch.

Let’s make it happen!

 

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Images credit:  M Stone;  Jelleke Vanooteghem (Unsplash);  Pexels (Pixabay); Tara Winstead (Pexels); rawpixel (FreePik)

Music credit: The Last Word (Oui Ma Chérie), by Andy Narrell

Podcast editing support:  Mayra Bonilla Lopez