PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – A new session of the Trinidad and Tobago parliament got underway here on Friday with President Christine Kangaloo urging legislators to deal as quickly as possible with a number of issues, including of artificial intelligence (AI) “exacerbating inequality” within the population.
President Christine Kangaloo addressing the ceremonial opening of the Parliament on Friday (CMC Photo)The new parliamentary session, following the April 28 general election, is historic in a number of ways, with all the top political positions being held by women, and in the Senate on Friday, Mrs Alicia Lalite-Ettienne, a university graduate trained in the human resources, who is also pursuing a doctorate in Business Administration at the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), became the first visually impaired person to sit in that chamber.
Addressing the ceremonial joint sitting of the Parliament that was attended by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the current chair of the 15-member regional integration movement, CARICOM, President Kangaloo, as she had done in 2023, had a shopping list for the “urgent parliamentary intervention” that can be of benefit to the citizens of the twin island republic.
She said that while she is fully aware that the new government of Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar is tasked “with the enormous work to be done at this stage of our nation’s development,” her hope is that “somewhere in the middle of everything else the government has planned for the benefit of our citizens, consideration can be given…to artificial intelligence.
“This is an area I raised when last I addressed Parliament. I am extremely pleased that the government has in creating a Ministry of Public Administration and Artificial Intelligence heighten recognition of the importance of AI.
“For all of its potential to do good, research shows that, without proactive regulatory intervention, AI can pose a variety of social and economic risks. These include displacing large segments of the workforce, concentrating economic power in the hands of a few dominant players, and exacerbating inequality.”
President Kangaloo said that there is therefore the view that, where AI is concerned, society benefits if legislators anticipate risks before they materialize, and establish legally enforceable standards to pre-emptively protect against systemic failures, unethical practices, and threats to market integrity.
“The creation of the new Ministry of Public Administration and Artificial Intelligence signals government’s intention to treat with both the benefits and the challenges of AI,” she said, adding “what would be even more commendable would be for Parliament to consider legislation that puts our country in the forefront of regional legislation in this area.
“Our citizens have learned difficult lessons from us having to play “regulatory catch-up” in the area of technology, especially in relation to social media. The loathsome practice of circulating intimate digital images of persons whom once we loved, when love turns bitter, began to be addressed by our courts only after unspeakable hurt and suffering were already inflicted upon victims, most of them female.
“The short point is, that with government’s sensitivity to the importance of Artificial Intelligence, Parliament has an opportunity, and it might well only be a short one, to get out in front of Artificial Intelligence, in a way that we did not do in respect of social media, and arrange for the regulation of AI technology in such a way as will maximize its benefits, and minimize its risk to citizens’ wellbeing.”
The Head of State said she was also hoping that another area the parliament might consider that can be of benefit to citizens, is in the area of enduring powers of attorney. She said under the current laws, a power of attorney becomes ineffective when its giver ceases to be mentally competent.
President Kangaloo said that as patron of the Alzheimer’s Society of Trinidad and Tobago, she has become aware that more and more citizens are being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and that many younger persons are also now living with the disease.
“As the law currently stands, once a person is afflicted with Alzheimer’s, or with any cognitive infirmity, any power of attorney which that person has previously given, becomes ineffective. “
She said that in order to manage that person’s affairs, “a cumbersome, lengthy, and expensive application” has to be made under the Mental Health Act to obtain an order appointing a Committee of that person.
“That process is an immense source of further mental and financial strain and stress for persons already stretched to the limit by the demands of caring for their loved ones. An enduring power of attorney will continue to be effective when the donor begins to lose mental capacity. Legislation which establishes the efficacy of an enduring power of attorney, will bring enormous relief to thousands of citizens.”
President Kangaloo said another hoped-for area of parliamentary intervention is in respect of persons with disabilities.
“Do forgive me, if, like the persistent neighbor in the Biblical Parable, I continue to knock on this particular door, in the hope that, if only to get me to stop knocking, this, our 13th Republican Parliament, will do what recent parliaments were not able to, and will rise to the task of passing badly-needed legislation in this area.
“If we are to build a society that is truly inclusive, we need to enact laws that protect the rights of persons with disabilities to enter and remain in the mainstream of social and economic activity.”
The new government has signaled its intention to do away with the Demerits Points System that President Kangaloo said, has in general, the goal of safeguarding road-users.
“Road accidents cause death and disabilities. They also cause unbearable mental anguish and long-lasting trauma. Sadly, many of us here today have felt this anguish and still live with this trauma,” she said, recalling the deaths of her sister, a data entry clerk and her brother, an acting chief justice at the time, as result of “terrible vehicular accidents.
“Even as I speak these words to you today, the pain of these losses still weighs me down. As I have said, I know that thousands of citizens share the same pain. Clerk or chief justice, it can happen to any of us.
“I therefore plead with Parliament that, whatever is done in this area, Parliament commits to ensuring enhanced safety on our nation’s roads, and to reducing road fatalities and related injuries.”
The Head of State ended her wish list for legislators by pleading for consideration to be given to amending the Regulations that govern the operations of Service Commissions so that the population can benefit from a “modernized and more effective public service.
“Think about the Teaching Service Commission, by way of just one example. Think of how our nation’s children would benefit from that Commission being able, through legislative intervention, to fill vacancies in our school system more rapidly than is at present possible. Our school children would benefit immensely from legislative interventions in this area,” she told legislators.
