Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

The founder of Cy­ber­SafeTT, a T&T Cy­ber­se­cu­ri­ty ad­vo­ca­cy group, has voiced sup­port for Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo’s call for ac­cel­er­at­ed leg­isla­tive ac­tion on ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence (AI) made dur­ing the cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing of T&T’s 13th Re­pub­li­can Par­lia­ment on Fri­day.

In a state­ment to Guardian Me­dia, Daren Dho­ray praised the Pres­i­dent’s re­marks as a “for­ward-look­ing aware­ness of both the promise and per­il AI pos­es to our so­ci­ety”.

Dho­ray em­pha­sised that with­out reg­u­la­tion, AI could ex­ac­er­bate sys­temic in­equal­i­ties, ma­nip­u­late pub­lic dis­course, and erode pub­lic trust.

Pres­i­dent Kan­ga­loo wel­comed the new Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to es­tab­lish a Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence but warned this should be fol­lowed by laws to pre­vent fu­ture harm.

She told MPs that while AI held vast po­ten­tial, with­out ear­ly leg­isla­tive safe­guards, it al­so risked deep­en­ing in­equal­i­ty, dis­plac­ing work­ers, and con­cen­trat­ing eco­nom­ic pow­er.

Dho­ray fur­ther drew at­ten­tion to the Pres­i­dent’s com­par­i­son be­tween AI and the de­layed reg­u­la­tion of so­cial me­dia, cit­ing the con­tin­ued fail­ure to en­act a com­pre­hen­sive Cy­ber Crime Bill.

“That fail­ure con­tin­ues to plague all cit­i­zens, not just women,” the group not­ed, “and un­der­scores the need for an­tic­i­pa­to­ry gov­er­nance.”

He con­tend­ed that if prop­er­ly re­sourced, the Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence has the po­ten­tial to po­si­tion Trinidad and To­ba­go as a re­gion­al leader in eth­i­cal tech gov­er­nance. How­ev­er, Dho­ray stressed that suc­cess hinges on in­ter-min­is­te­r­i­al co­op­er­a­tion and leg­isla­tive re­form, not just bu­reau­crat­ic box-check­ing.

Cy­ber­SafeTT point­ed to sig­nif­i­cant leg­isla­tive gaps, not­ing that the Com­put­er Mis­use Act (Chap. 11:17), last up­dat­ed in 2011, is no longer fit for pur­pose.

“While it re­mains use­ful for pros­e­cut­ing ba­sic cy­ber of­fences, it is silent on crit­i­cal mod­ern is­sues such as ran­somware, phish­ing, dig­i­tal pri­va­cy rights, and AI mis­use,” Dho­ray said.

Dho­ray is urg­ing Par­lia­ment to: Mod­ernise the Com­put­er Mis­use Act to ad­dress emerg­ing threats, en­force da­ta pro­tec­tion and pri­va­cy rights in ac­cor­dance with in­ter­na­tion­al stan­dards, in­tro­duce leg­is­la­tion to en­sure AI trans­paren­cy, ac­count­abil­i­ty, and fair­ness, in­vest in in­sti­tu­tion­al ca­pac­i­ty for cy­ber­se­cu­ri­ty en­force­ment, reg­u­la­tion, and ed­u­ca­tion.

“We echo the Pres­i­dent’s re­minder: Trinidad and To­ba­go can­not af­ford to wait un­til dig­i­tal harm be­comes head­lines,” the state­ment read. From the spread of in­ti­mate im­ages with­out con­sent to al­go­rith­mic dis­crim­i­na­tion and job dis­place­ment, Cy­ber­SafeTT warned that the risks are “re­al and ris­ing.”

As the coun­try en­ters a new leg­isla­tive ses­sion, the  Cy­ber­SafeTT founder called on pol­i­cy­mak­ers to seize the mo­ment and shape a fu­ture where dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies serve the pub­lic good.

“Let us lead, not just in re­act­ing to harm, but in build­ing a dig­i­tal so­ci­ety that is eth­i­cal, in­clu­sive, and se­cure by de­sign.”