Amid growing concern about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on people’s lives, the Jamaican Government has said it will develop a national policy to govern use of the technology.

Government Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon revealed the Administration’s intention in her contribution to the State of the Nation Debate in the Upper House on Friday, saying that she is in the process of forming an AI task force that will conduct research and provide an evidence-based foundation for the policy.

“The task force’s research will comprehensively analyse the current state of AI in Jamaica, including research and development activities, and there is already quite a bit of AI deployed in some of our entities in Jamaica. It will look at adoption levels and challenges faced by various sectors of the economy,” said Morris Dixon, who is also the minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for skills and digital transformation.

She said the task force is also expected to identify opportunities for the adoption of AI technologies, potential areas of economic growth and development, and potential social impacts.

“We must understand the risks and implement the necessary safeguards to allow us to respond to the rapid rate of technological change and to ultimately scale with confidence,” Morris Dixon said.

She stressed that the economy the Government envisages is one in which technology can be used to boost production, productivity, and economic growth “which will allow Jamaica to claim its place in this constantly evolving global market”.

The emergence of the ChatGPT system, created by American artificial intelligence research company OpenAI, has caused some jitters in Jamaica, sparking conversations about machines replacing human jobs, or the technology being used to create mischief. It has also prompted discussions on the issue of data protection.

In May this year, Senator Aubyn Hill, the minister of industry, investment and commerce, had told Jamaicans to be prepared to embrace AI, which, if properly managed, can be extremely useful.

The State news agency, Jamaica Information Service, reported Hill as saying that once policies are put in place ensuring responsible use of the technology, there should be very little problem in maximising its use throughout society.

“As this new technology comes it will provide challenges, but we’re smart enough to get together to find a way to manage it. We must make sure we put controls so that it doesn’t run away from us. But what we’re going to do is make sure we work with it, get smart people to identify it, and the Government clearly must be there to make policies,” Senator Hill said.

On the matter of the challenges that the use of AI poses, last month St Catherine West Central Member of Parliament Dr Christopher Tufton brought to the fore its use in creating mischief, which he accused the Opposition of doing in its political campaigning. Stressing that this poses a threat to democracy, he urged the legislature to discuss the issue with a view to establishing sanctions for people using the technology for that purpose.

Last month, Joanna Marzouca, an associate in the Commercial Department at top-flight Jamaican law firm Myers, Fletcher and Gordon, highlighted the need for a governing policy for AI in Jamaica.

In an article published in the Jamaica Observer, Marzouca noted that while ChatGPT and other generative AI have the potential to increase efficiency, boost productivity, and reduce costs, they have several limitations that can result in undesirable outcomes if used inappropriately.

“Notwithstanding the opportunities for improvement generative AI provides, some caution must be applied in the use of generative AI. Generative AI systems are not grounded in truth or logic and so the output generated can be inaccurate, unreliable and inconsistent,” Marzouca said.

“Certainly, not least of all, are the risks to confidentiality and privacy, particularly in light of the remaining sections of the Data Protection Act of Jamaica set to come into force on December 1, 2023,” she said.

Concern about the use of AI is one of the issues at the heart of the current double-barrelled strike by actors and screenwriters that has basically locked down the film industry in Hollywood.

Unions representing both writers and actors want to put up guardrails against the use of AI mimicking their work on film and television.

Also in the United States this week, news emerged that the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched an investigation into OpenAI and whether the company violated consumer protection laws by scraping public data and publishing false information through its chatbot.

The Associated Press (AP) reported that the commission sent OpenAI a 20-page letter requesting detailed information on its AI technology, products, customers, privacy safeguards, and data security arrangements.

The AP also reported that OpenAI has faced scrutiny elsewhere. Italian regulators temporarily blocked ChatGPT over privacy concerns, and privacy watchdogs in France, Spain, Ireland, and Canada also are paying closer attention, including some that have launched investigations after receiving complaints.

According to AP, the FTC’s move is a serious regulatory threat to the nascent but fast-growing AI industry, although it’s not the only challenge facing these companies.

Comedian Sarah Silverman and two other authors have sued both OpenAI and Facebook parent Meta for copyright infringement, claiming that the companies’ AI systems were illegally “trained” by exposing them to datasets containing illegal copies of their works.

Meanwhile, CNN has reported that China has published new rules for generative artificial intelligence, becoming one of the first countries in the world to regulate the technology.

“The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s top Internet watchdog, unveiled a set of updated guidelines on Thursday to manage the burgeoning industry, which has taken the world by storm. The rules are set to take effect on August 15,” CNN said.

The news network said that, compared to a preliminary draft released in April, the published version, which is being called “interim measures”, appears to have relaxed several previously announced provisions, suggesting Beijing sees opportunity in the incipient industry as the country seeks to re-ignite economic growth in order to create jobs.