Artificial intelligence (AI) systems, when applied well, could help in addressing key global challenges and advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, these potential benefits will not materialize automatically. The use of AI also carries significant risks, such as disruption to job markets and economies, loss of cultural diversity, new AI-enabled digital weapons that increase misinformation and surveillance, and threats to human rights and democracy. While AI systems could support the achievement of many of the SDGs , they could also impede the achievement of others and increase inequalities within and between countries (Vinuesa and others). Many experts in the field of AI are concerned that existing or new harms resulting from AI will become substantially more serious or widespread in the near future, due to inequalities arising from differential control of and ownership over AI technologies (UN HLAB, 2024a).

Bearing in mind these risks and the promises of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to “leave no one behind”, “reach the furthest behind first” and “reduce inequality within and among countries”, it is clear that governments must strengthen their capacity to govern AI. The real harms associated with AI must be mitigated, new risks and threats must be anticipated, and its potential and opportunities could be harnessed for the benefit of people across the Caribbean. However, there is a governance gap relating to digital technologies, in particular AI, that must be filled to achieve this.