In a scenario of growing connectivity and insertion of the island into global internet highways, Cuban authorities do not hide their concern about the content on the networks.
“We have more than eight million citizens connected to the Internet, but the question is: what content are they consuming and what content are they generating?” Jorge Legañoa, vice president of the new Institute of Information and Social Communication, questioned this Wednesday.
He did it on the television show Round tablededicated this time to the recent approval by the government of the policy for Digital Transformation, the Cuban Digital Agenda and the Strategy for the Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, at a time when the country is going through a critical moment of crisis.
Legañoa, an active journalist and political analyst, recalled the fulminating nature of the communication processes in the hands of citizens, an issue that, as a result of the violent events in the Finca de los Monos Technological Palace in Havana, returned with force to the debate in the networks.
To exemplify the current dynamics, without mentioning the events that are now reverberating in cyberspace, he cited the case of the Saratoga hotel explosion, which occurred a couple of years ago, and the viral nature of its tragic scenes on mobile phones, and how the media They were in tow of that communication transfer.
“The media have been left to interpret society, but the news, with the values that they unfortunately have, are being generated by citizens,” the official lamented.
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The specialist stated that the majority of the content consumed on Cubans’ cell phones is not domestic, but generated by transnational platforms and conglomerates.
In his opinion, such content is mostly “colonizing” and goes against the logic of the Cuban socialist system.
Digital skills
“One of the main challenges that our country has today is the generation of content,” which makes it necessary to deliver “digital skills so that the cell phone is not an enemy instrument, but an ally of each citizen,” estimated Legañoa.
Digital skills, a term defined as the critical and safe use of Information Society Technologies for work, leisure and communication, was an issue addressed by Alain Lamadrid, another of the panelists.
For the general director of Information, Communication and computerization of the Ministry of Higher Education, it is necessary to “work on digital skills in all possible scenarios”, but above all “in managers, where the main decisions are made today.”
Lamadrid emphasized the preparation of teachers, who “are the ones who will provide those skills that we need in children, young people, students, and postgraduate students.”
“We will not be able to advance in the digital transformation if we do not generate capabilities at an early age,” he warned, which, in his opinion, contributes to the construction of a technological culture in the new generations, with all its moral implications.
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Disruptive technologies
Cuba is accelerating the use of disruptive technologies. Read artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, “that allow us to transform the economic processes that we have in the country today and that respond to the fundamental needs of our population,” said, for her part, the Minister of Communications, Mayra. Arevich.
But to establish these dynamics of modernity, “a cultural change” of a participatory nature must be imposed, he asserted.
The development strategy designed by her portfolio establishes eight strategic axes, including regulations, infrastructure, connectivity and access, sustainability, as well as education and culture, cybersecurity and innovation, the minister explained at the Round table.
Graduated in 1989 as a telecommunications engineer, Averich supported advances in the penetration of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in Cuba based on official statistics.
In a country with a population of about eleven million—or surely less, due to the migratory stampede of recent years—“today we have 7.8 million Cubans who have mobile phone service, more than 8 million connect to internet” (from their homes or institutions), while “7 million Cubans connect to the internet through mobile phones,” he said.
Likewise, the owner considered the expansion of digital payments on the island through the Transfermóvil and EnZona platforms, “of which 5 million people use.”
Likewise, he highlighted that more than five digital signature providers already provide services and, in this sense, the e-signaturean application within the Apklis portfolio, official and reliable provider for the distribution of Cuban and foreign applications for Android.
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Government plans
Other novelties on the Cuban digital agenda will be the upcoming Government Portal, which, according to the minister, will provide its users with information and transparency in online procedures and services that will be “accompanied by a citizen’s identity, which will give security to the time to be able to access and save your digital documents.”
So far and without specifying the stage in the timeline, Averich said that of the four million procedures in the civil registries of the Ministry of Justice, “more than a million of them have been done through the digital part.”
“The intention we have as a country is to reduce the number of documents requested in the procedures and to be able to strengthen the government-government relationship through the intensive and extensive use of the data we have. “That is going to be an important cultural change,” said the executive.
The emergence of the Cuban cloud also appears in the short-term plans of the Ministry of Communications, “where the most important data can be stored and all the data we have in the country can be correlated in a secure way.”
The government’s agenda also includes a digital citizenship model, on an ascending scale from the municipality to the central government.
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Digitalization and artificial intelligence in Health
At the moment, the processes that have been accelerated are limited to the so-called banking system and tax activity, but in the near future the government plans to advance the digital health program, including hospital telemedicine services and the memorization of histories. government cloud clinics.
“It doesn’t matter if a doctor saw me in Havana and I’m going to Santiago de Cuba and they need to see some of my medical history. It seems like something very far away, but it is not like that,” promised the minister, who cited other sectors sensitive to transformations such as tourism, to turn it into an intelligent service.
Regarding the promising and at the same time controversial artificial intelligence (AI), Averich said that “we are not at zero in Cuba” and guaranteed that all the algorithms that are designed will be “tested” for evaluation within rigorous regulations that privilege ethics. of inventions.
“We have to ensure that this technological development is accelerated, but also that algorithms are not used to denigrate the integrity of the human being,” he warned.
For his part, the deputy head of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA), Dr. Armando Rodríguez, landed on some examples of the application of artificial intelligence in the medical services sector.
The fact that 25% of the research centers in Cuba are in medical sciences has allowed a growing use of AI in various processes, including the calculation of the lenses to be implanted in cataract surgery at the Pando Ferrer ophthalmological hospital, from Havana.
Meanwhile, the Jesús Montané Oropesa University on the Isle of Youth created an information and technology system for the study of Parkinson’s disease, taking into account the massive processing of data in real time, the official noted.
Rodríguez also highlighted the alliances between state entities, academics and the private sector, as part of an “inclusive” system, in which “every actor has the capacity to make innovation and receive benefits.”
“There is a fabric that is being formed around digital transformation and that is very good for the country,” he estimated.
The Cuban government is carrying out its computerization plans in the midst of a severe economic crisis, fueled by the effects of the pandemic, Washington sanctions and internal inefficiencies.
Among the reforms undertaken in search of alleviating the situation is the growing opening of the private sector, within which activities related to computer development have an important weight.
However, the difficulties and shortcomings existing on the island also conspire against greater access and use of ICT. Long electrical outages, instability in the connection and the obsolescence of the infrastructure hit Cubans in their daily lives and in practice hinder a broader and more efficient use of digital tools and platforms.
