Without a doubt, many conversations are being had globally on artificial intelligence (AI), and one of the most important occurred during the recently held Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland. Software Architect and Tech Entrepreneur, Joel Dean, who attended the meeting, joins us on this episode and shares with us: the AI-related issues that were discussed at Davos; important takeaways he had from those discussions; and how we, in the Caribbean (and perhaps more broadly developing countries), should be positioning ourselves for AI and the future of tech.

 

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

Eighteen months ago, we may not have appreciated the impact artificial intelligence (AI) could have on our lives. However, thanks to platforms such as ChatGPT, Bard and DALL-E 2, AI has become so mainstream that we might now take our access and use of them for granted.

Having said this, and while we grapple with the benefits we have realised over the past year through AI and correspondingly, the challenges and adjustments that we will need to make in a world that increasingly is being powered by AI, conversations are being held in the various corridors of power on the future of AI, including the ways it can be leveraged to increase productivity, competitiveness and profit.  Unfortunately, developing countries including those in the Caribbean region, are rarely part of these discussions. From the 15—19 January 2024, the 54th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organisation for public and private sector collaboration. The organisation has several well-regarded reports, and its annual meeting is its flagship event. The recently concluded Annual Meeting had representatives from over 100 governments, all of the major international organizations, 1,000 of the Forum’s Partners, civil society leaders, experts, youth representatives, social entrepreneurs, etc. The meeting was convened under the theme, “Rebuilding Trust” and a key workstream of the event was, “Artificial Intelligence as a Driving Force for the Economy and Society”, which was one of its thematic priorities.

In this podcast episode, we will be speaking with someone who had the opportunity to participate in that meeting to learn how thought leaders, captains of industry and other globally influential persons view AI, and how we in the Caribbean can respond to this important technology.

 

Introducing our guest

Joel Dean

Joel Dean is a seasoned Software Architect and Tech Entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience building applications for iPhones, Android phones, computers, and televisions. For the last decade, he has been working remotely for several US million and billion-dollar companies. Currently, he is a Senior Software Engineer at Automattic, the owner of the popular blogging platform WordPress.com and Tumblr. Combined, they have over 150 million active websites and over 400 million microblogs reaching over a billion users per month.

Joel is an active member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers and was also the lead organiser for the Google Developers Group Kingston. He is a proud recipient of the Prime Minister Youth Award for Excellence in Science and Technology.

 

Insights into our conversation

Though boasting as many as 3,000 attendees, the WEF annual meeting is an invitation-only event. So, when Joel announced that he had snagged an invitation, I knew we had to schedule a comprehensive AI-related debrief on the Podcast!

Much of our conversation focussed on some of the big themes that emerged during the event, such as responsible AI, generative AI versus artificial general intelligence, and the implications going forward for business. We also spent some time trying to relate the emerging insights to the Caribbean region, and specifically, how we as developing countries can ensure that we remain relevant and competitive globally.

Below are key questions posed to Joel that shaped our discussion.

  1. Do tell us a bit more about who you are and your interest and involvement in AI.
  2. What is the World Economic Forum and this meeting that is held every January in Davos, Switzerland? And how did you get invited to that meeting?
  3. Regarding AI, were there any major or recurring themes in the sessions that were held?
  4. What do you think could be the takeaways for the Caribbean region?
  5. How might the region better position itself for not only how AI is evolving, but perhaps more importantly, how it will be implemented or used by others?

 

We would love to hear your thoughts!

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!

 

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 credit:  J Dean;  Tung Nguyen (Pixabay);  Focal Foto (flickr);  Freepik

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

Podcast editing support: Mayra Bonilla Lopez