ANDREW GIOANNETTI
Industries and government services will inevitably be transformed by technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), and using it to analyse big data will drive intelligent solutions to engage and connect citizens, the business community and the State.
Joanna Kazana, UN resident co-ordinator, said, “We want to learn to live with these new forces and learn to not merely see them as tools, but engage with them as transformative forces, holding the potential to positively shape and redefine our human experience.
“Yet again, civilisation stands at the cusp of a technological revolution that is already fundamentally altering the way we live, we work, we learn, communicate and relate to one another.”
The UN hosted its third annual Big Data Forum on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Hyatt Regency, Port of Spain, with panel discussions and presentations from representatives of government ministries, and some of the country’s most respected organisations in the fields of analytics, technology, security, finance and other industries.
Many significant actions "stemmed from this forum discussion in 2021 and 2022, and we can now celebrate as milestones in the local data-ecosystem modernisation efforts,” said Kazana.
She said this year’s edition brings together elements of the previous two, with additional technological advancements featuring prominently, particularly the increasing reliance on AI to process big data and its potential across the economy.
The UN says it has long been at “the forefront advocating for a data revolution using both traditional statistics as well as big data while ensuring data privacy, protection and ethics.”
Its Global Pulse, established in 2009, was created to assist the UN, Kazana said, in “leveraging big data and data analysis for sustainable development and humanitarian action.
“More than a decade later, innovative pulse labs exist, now globally leveraging anonymised mobile and social-media data, and other sources of information to support solutions to country development challenges.”
Kazana said the UN has also led on cyber security through initiatives and projects to align with its goal of “creating a sustainable and inclusive global community.”
She highlighted a high-level multi-stakeholder advisory body on AI, launched by the UN general secretary Antonio Guterres, in New York, last month.
“While highlighting the extraordinary advance in the capabilities and use of artificial intelligence, through chatbots, voice cloning, image generators, video apps and more, the (secretary general) also reminded us of the dangers of AI.
“This is why, at the global and national level, the UN is starting to focus on creating space for dialogue and generating input to the process of development of international norms and rules to govern state behaviour in cyberspace, whilst providing valuable resources and collaborations for capacity-building in member states.”
Technological divide and iniquity
Kazana said there are still polarities in the digital world.
