In our August 2023 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Simone Pasmore, the Chief Executive Officer of Webstylze in Barbados, and Dr Lyndell St Ville, the Chief Technology Officer of Datashore in Saint Lucia, the panel discusses:  Technology-related bias; AI for accessibility for the Differently Abled; Worldcoin in the Caribbean, would it be a good or bad thing?

 

This episode is also available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Stitcher!

Though the topics discussed in our August 2023 Community Chat podcast episode seem unrelated and diverse, a few common themes appear to exist – accessibility, equality and inclusion. However, the underlying issues, along with the challenges and implications, under each topic are different, which when combined with the current stage of development of technology and our current societal challenges, all enriched the conversations we were able to have.

 

Introducing our guests

Simone Pasmore is the Chief Executive Officer of Webstylze, a web and mobile applications development firm, based in Barbados. In addition to being CEO, Simone’s areas of expertise include data science, artificial intelligence (AI), web development, and app development to name a few.

Dr Lyndell St Ville is the Owner/Chief Technology Officer at Datashore which is based in Saint Lucia, and is a consultancy firm that offers services including, business intelligence and ICT policy development and design. He is also the Immediate Past President of the St Lucia ICT Association, and authors the Everyday Computing column for a local newspaper in Saint Lucia, which demystifies issues related to the use of technology

 

This month’s Community Chat topics

Our first topic is one that is a particular concern in relation to the ethics of AI, which is a topic we have covered before. But with AI becoming more mainstream, thanks to generative AI, we thought it merit revisiting. Technology-related bias, which is not necessarily limited to AI, gives us the opportunity to explore varied instances when the datasets and models used may not be representative or inclusive of the consumers these technologies are supposed to serve, or inherently perpetuate certain prejudices.

Diversity and inclusion are concepts that have become increasingly prominent in today’s society, with extra attention being made to ensure we all are more aware and accepting of our differences. However, in the Caribbean region and to a considerable degree, persons with disabilities still seem to be overlooked in our societies. Hence, our second topic is, AI for accessibility (differently abled): empowering inclusion and empathy.

To be clear, people who are differently abled are not limited to those who do not have use of their senses or have a physical disability. Health conditions such as dyslexia, epilepsy and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are also classified as disabilities. The argument is thus being made that AI (and other technologies) may be able to rebalance the inequalities and lack of accessibility currently being experienced by the differently abled thus allowing them to be more active participants and contributors to society.

Finally, Worldcoin, the iris biometric cryptocurrency project, has consistently been in the news over the past few months. At the time of writing, the project had over 2.25 million sign-ups in 34 countries worldwide. However, Worldcoin has been riddled with controversy, as it has been accused of taking advantage of consumers, particularly those in low-income communities, along with concerns being expressed about the security of its network, and how it deals with privacy and data protection.

Our final topic is a ‘what-if’ scenario: Worldcoin in the Caribbean: would it be a good or bad thing?, whichforced us to consider the implications of some of the issues that emerged in other countries within a Caribbean context.

 

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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!

 

Select Links

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

 

 

Images credits:  S Pasmore;  L St Ville; rawpixel.com (Freepik); Gerd Altmann (Pixabay);  Possessed Photography (Unsplash)

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

Podcast editing support:  Mayra Bonilla Lopez