An AI-powered pilot project is being started by the PJ Patterson Institute for Africa-Caribbean Advocacy with the goal of enhancing education and promoting development and prosperity in both areas. On April 10, 2025, Patterson, the sixth prime minister of Jamaica, made the announcement over the weekend of his 90th birthday festivities.
According to him, the institution is working tirelessly to complete the planning and execution of a pilot project for an AI center that would promote research, education, technical advancement, and the growth of new industries in Africa and the Caribbean.
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Patterson stated, “This initiative, in collaboration with Afreximbank, will be formally launched by early June.”
He pointed out that the second annual symposium of the institute, titled “Educational Transformation in Africa and The Caribbean: Centering African Heritage and Identity,” which took place in February 2025, concluded that education is the key to securing inclusive prosperity for all our people and gaining global economic market power.
According to him, to fully realize its potential, African and Caribbean leaders must create and follow a daring and thrilling journey with a strong sense of purpose.
According to the elder statesman and former prime minister, “We dare not wait patiently for the developed and powerful, in accordance with their national interests, to prevent our entry into the halls and corridors that determine our economic well-being, human flourishing, and civic progress.”
He emphasized that education, “has to be catapulted as the most formidable weapon in our arsenal for progress in a world where we have been, for ages, victims of human savagery and exploitation of our natural resources”.
According to him, the institution is thus determined that the current crises of catastrophic uncertainties and worldwide turmoil “oblige us to make these the best of times and no longer the worst.”
The former PM stated, “As we build on the rich heritage of our pioneering advances in mathematics, medicine, architecture, and philosophy, we must not shirk the challenge to empower this and future generations with the tools to navigate and shape the global technological landscape.”
He urged, “Indeed, we have no choice in order to live. We are compelled to seize the unique moment to pivot in building an economy that is innovative and accelerates the flow of our knowledge-intensive skills. Our jobs must include high value-added outputs and the use of our natural resources as equity investment in global initiatives. We who belong to global Africa must spur our own AI development and digital transformation for our own growth and shared prosperity.”
According to him, the Caribbean’s symbiotic relationship with Africa is “deliberately designed by us as free people of sovereign nations, based on voluntary choices, to reflect the exercise of our political relationships that affect our collective economic fortunes”.
“It will be grounded on the recognition of our capacities, endowments, overlaps and comparative advantages. It will reflect our determination to occupy and enjoy our rightful place on the single planet where all humankind must equitably share and inhabit together in its stewardship to dwell in peace and prosperity,” he concluded.
