Belize Joins OAS Discussion on AI Laws and Opportunities for Development

Members of the Organization of American States are meeting in Washington D.C. to discuss laws governing artificial intelligence (AI) and how it can be used in various sectors. The Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology Dr. Louis Zabaneh is currently at the 7^th OAS Meeting for Ministers of Science, Technology, and Innovation. The meeting is being held to discuss regulatory necessities for (AI) development in member states and the technology’s use in data collection. Today, we spoke with Dr. Zabaneh via Zoom about the importance of Belize’s participation and how the country believes it can benefit from using AI. 

Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of State, Ministry of Education: “The discussion is based on a broader understanding of what is necessary within your country to be able to foster a good environment for AI to benefit the citizens of your country. And that means that we’re talking about the education system. One of the critical partners in SDI is the academic sector. And additionally, you have the private sector, of course, and the public sector working together to ensure that we are able to harness the benefits of AI being used within our countries and also to ensure that we are able to identify the risks. For example, issues related to safety, issues related to personal information protection, issues related to the use of AI to adversely affect the well-being of people. So all those are being discussed to ensure that we understand what kinds of laws we need to look at, the regulatory framework to protect the interests of our citizens and of course to make sure that there is that balance that we are also incentivizing its use by a society at large and in particular by the private sector.”

Dr. Zabaneh explained that tomorrow he will be making a presentation on Belize’s efforts to improve its education sector with the use of STEAM education and technology.

Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of State, Ministry of Education: “My presentation will be particularly focused on our country’s interest, including with respect to the educational transformation, competency-based education, STEAM education, higher education, our ITVETS, teacher training, all those components that will be necessary from the education side, the training side to prepare our people to be able to enjoy the benefits and of course, not just to consume what is being produced around the world, but also to be able to produce as well. And as you might know, this is part and parcel of from our perspective in Belize, the work that we’re doing with our first National Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy and Action Plan. And so it’s quite timely and it is something that countries around the world are discussing and finding ways to collaborate so we can maximize really what is the tipping point for us moving into the fourth industrial revolution. That’s what we’re dealing with. The applications of AI are numerous and at the end of the day it is about using it to improve the lives of our people across many different areas. So we’re talking about improving health care delivery, improving agricultural productivity, improving information gathering, data collection, data dissemination, the analysis and assessment of large data sets that will reveal certain patterns that we can learn and be able to make better decisions.”

The two-day meeting ends tomorrow.