Letter of the Day | The PNP and the coming AI divide

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I have a word of advice for the People’s National Party: artificial intelligence should become one of the major intellectual questions the party begins addressing now. Not simply because AI will transform technology, but because it may determine who gets ahead and who gets left behind.

Artificial intelligence promises extraordinary gains in productivity, efficiency, and wealth creation. A professional with access to sophisticated AI tools can already accomplish in hours what once took days. Businesses can automate functions ranging from marketing and accounting to customer service and administration. Students with reliable internet access and advanced AI tools can learn, research, and produce work at a level previously unimaginable.

But what about Jamaicans without those advantages?

The old digital divide was mainly about access to the internet. The emerging divide will be between those who know how to use intelligent machines to multiply their productivity and those whose jobs, skills, and opportunities may be diminished by them.

For a political party historically concerned with social justice and equality of opportunity, this should be a significant philosophical issue.

The answer is not to resist AI. Jamaica must embrace it. Our businesses need greater productivity, our professionals must compete globally, and our students and entrepreneurs must gain the technological sophistication required to succeed in a rapidly changing world.

Yet an important question remains: Who will benefit from the AI revolution?

Will AI broaden opportunity, or will it allow those who already possess capital, education, and technology to move even further ahead?

The PNP should begin shaping this debate. What would universal AI literacy look like in Jamaica? Should every secondary-school graduate understand how to use AI responsibly and productively? How do we retrain workers whose jobs change or disappear? How do we place these tools in the hands of farmers, tradesmen, small-business owners, and rural students rather than allowing AI capability to become another privilege of class and geography?

Opposition should mean more than criticising the Government. A serious Opposition should also be a factory of ideas.

The PNP has an opportunity to bring together economists, educators, technologists, entrepreneurs, trade unions, universities, and young Jamaicans to develop a modern philosophy of social and economic opportunity for the age of artificial intelligence.

Previous generations wrestled with access to land, education, housing, employment, and political representation. This generation may face a defining question: Who owns, controls, and ultimately benefits from the new machinery of intelligence?

PAUL LYN