00:00Seventy years from now, I wonder what historians will say about us.
00:06Will they say that when technology transformed the media,
00:10Caribbean broadcasters surrendered their identity to the algorithm?
00:15Or will they say that this was the generation that took the new technology and made it Caribbean?
00:22I believe we can choose the second.
00:24A call from the president of Guyana to broadcasters and content producers across the Caribbean
00:31at a time when media, and the way it is consumed, is evolving at a rapid pace.
00:38The television audience is no longer what it once was.
00:43S&P Global reports that pay TV penetration across Latin America and the Caribbean
00:51fell from 42% of TV-owning households in 2016, from 42% to 31% in 2024,
01:03as streaming services gained popularity.
01:06That is an 11% decline.
01:12It represents a profound transformation in the way people consume video.
01:18The viewer is moving.
01:20And if the viewer is moving, the broadcaster must move too.
01:26Dr. Ali notes, international markets recognize the value of the Caribbean identity
01:32and how to capitalize on it.
01:35Let us have more West Indian content on global platforms.
01:43We have seen Madison Square.
01:47Marshall sold it out three nights.
01:51Cartels sold it out.
01:55We have a product.
01:57Are we leveraging the product?
02:00We have a culture.
02:02Are we leveraging the culture?
02:03He believes AI and other emerging technologies hold the key.
02:10We should not fear technology.
02:11We should master it.
02:13We should not reject AI.
02:15We should understand it, regulate it wisely, and use it intelligently.
02:20We should not retreat from the global digital platforms.
02:24We should use them to take Caribbean stories to the world.
02:28Dr. Ali is also calling for the leveraging of AI and other technologies
02:32on the journalistic front.
02:34However, he is also urging balance.
02:38Use AI.
02:40Use it to transcribe interviews, use it to search enormous databases, use it to analyze data, use it to translate,
02:54use it to identify patterns, use it to help newsrooms that are under-resourced.
03:04Because the moment we surrender editorial judgment to the machine, we risk surrendering something more important than efficiency.
03:16We risk surrendering responsibility, and responsibility is at the heart of broadcasting.
03:24Dr. Ali was speaking at the opening of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union's 57th Annual General Assembly in Georgetown on Tuesday
03:33night.
03:33Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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