Yatishara Blog
The Caribbean today
What’s going on across the Caribbean — companies, energy, payments, creative work, and Trinidad & Tobago as a hub.
About this blog and the Yatishara sites
Who runs this blog, what we cover and how it connects to Yatishara Marketing's other sites, including Studio and our client link pages in Trinidad.
Selling on WhatsApp in the Caribbean
Many Caribbean sales start with an ad and close in a WhatsApp chat. Where that breaks, how payment links help and what Meta's new message fees mean.
Wam: a Trinidad wallet built for checkout
Wam, a Central Bank-registered wallet from Trinidad, offers tap-to-phone, payment links and hosted checkout. What it costs, how it works and what to check.
Paper digest: video diffusion and world models
How AI video went from still images to Sora and to Open-Sora, trained for about US$200,000. What 'world simulator' means and how to judge tools.
Why Trinidad still powers Caribbean industry
Gas, LNG, Point Lisas and a gas-fired grid make Trinidad and Tobago the region's industrial base. Supply is tight, and new fields are due from 2027.
Paper digest: RAG for cultural LLMs
Retrieval-augmented generation lets AI look up facts in your documents before answering. What the key papers found, and why it matters for Caribbean AI.
Paper digest: how AI learns what people prefer
Chatbots are trained to give answers people prefer, using methods called RLHF and DPO. How they work, what three key papers found and what 'aligned' means.
Paper digest: Omni-Diffusion
Omni-Diffusion is one AI model that can listen, speak, read images and draw, built on a newer design. What it does, how well it works and why it could matter.
Paper digest: Mixture-of-Experts
Mixture-of-Experts lets AI models grow much larger without costing much more to run. How it works, from Google's early papers to Mistral's Mixtral.
Paper digest: LaViDa-R1
Adobe researchers trained one AI model to reason about images, solve maths and edit pictures. What LaViDa-R1 does differently and where it falls short.
Intellico launches its AI business software
Port of Spain's Intellico launched IntellicoERP on 26 August, aiming to sell abroad and hire over 1,000 people. What it does and what buyers should ask first.
Guyana's Fast Pay: what's live and what isn't
Guyana promised instant bank transfers from 2 June 2026 and a link to India's UPI. What is confirmed, what is still pending and why oil money matters.
GigLink wins Techstars Startup Weekend POS
GigLink, a booking and admin app for musicians, won a 54-hour startup challenge in Port of Spain in August. What it plans to do and what has to happen next.
Who backs Future Caribbean, and what they give
Future Caribbean lists 49 partners, from IDB Invest to the NYSE. Here is what each main backer brings: money, computers, payments or a stage.
Who judges the Future Caribbean Buildathon
Future Caribbean's Founding 1000 has grown to 159 judges, advisors and volunteers. Here is who sits on the public list and how scores are checked.
Future Caribbean's AI Buildathon, explained
A Barbados-founded contest invited teams worldwide to build AI agents for Caribbean problems. Who runs it, what winners get and where it stands now.
Paper digest: FlashAttention
FlashAttention made AI models faster and able to read longer text without changing their answers. How it works, and why it affects what AI costs you.
CyarGPT and AutoTrustJa: Jamaica's car apps
Two Jamaican startups cover car ownership from both ends: CyarGPT helps you choose a vehicle, and AutoTrustJa reminds you before fitness and insurance lapse.
Paper digest: Creole and low-resource NLP
AI language tools are built mostly on English text. What research on Jamaican Patois and other Creoles shows, and what local AI teams need next.
Carnival music rights: who collects the money
Every soca track played at a fete needs a licence, and Trinidad has two music collecting societies. How royalties flow and where creators lose out.
CARICOM digital ID and free movement: what's live
Four CARICOM states allow full free movement, and Barbados and Guyana accept ID cards. Who can use them, when you still need a passport, and what's next.
Caribbean tourism in 2026: yachts, rooms, targets
Trinidad wants tourism at 12% of GDP by 2030, while St Kitts and St Vincent chase yacht spending. What each plan says and what can't yet be measured.
Subsea cables: why island data takes the long way
A cable links Guyana and Trinidad, yet traffic still detours through the US. Why it happens, which new cables are planned and what it means for you.
Paper digest: speech AI and Caribbean voices
Whisper transcribes standard English well, but gets most Jamaican Patois words wrong. What three papers show, and how to test speech tools yourself.
Why Caribbean radio still holds in the digital era
Trinidad radio earned more in 2024, yet Jamaican surveys show fewer listeners. What the numbers say about radio, and how to use it alongside social media.
Buying Caribbean property from abroad
Fake listings are rising as property sales move online. What Jamaica and Trinidad are doing, and how diaspora buyers can protect a deposit.
Caribbean ports go digital, one form at a time
Global rules have required online ship paperwork since 2024. Where Caribbean ports stand, what Trinidad launched and what it means for importers.
Caribbean payment fraud is getting bigger
Fraud reports fell in Trinidad and Jamaica, but losses per case rose. The scams hitting Caribbean businesses now, and simple checks that stop most of them.
CCRIF: how Caribbean climate insurance pays out
CCRIF paid Jamaica US$91.9 million within 14 days of Hurricane Melissa. How parametric insurance works, who it covers, and where its limits are.
Caribbean industries, August 2026: a roundup
Ports going digital, Trinidad's tourism targets, the GlobalTT creative push, tight gas and new payment options: five Caribbean industries in one read.
Caribbean telemedicine: few doctors, many chats
Caribbean patients wait for scarce specialists while clinics run on WhatsApp. What Jamaica, Trinidad and the IDB are doing, and what it means for clinics.
Diaspora remittances meet local checkout
Caribbean families receive over US$18 billion a year from relatives abroad. Why that money rarely reaches local online stores, and what could change it.
Trinidad's film rebate: what producers get back
Trinidad and Tobago pays back up to 35% of film spending, plus 20% on local labour, through 2027. Who qualifies, how the process works and what to watch.
Caribbean companies to know, August 2026
Seven Caribbean companies and projects that made news in August 2026, from a Trinidad music startup to Jamaica's car apps and a cultural AI lab.
Caribbean agri-food tech versus the import bill
The Caribbean spends billions a year importing food, and the goal to cut that by 25% now runs to 2030. Where farm technology helps, and where it can't.
Caribbean ad spend in 2026: what we know
One widely shared study says the Caribbean spends US$1.2 billion a year on ads, 38% of it digital. Here is what holds up, what doesn't and how to plan.
Barbados and Cayman as fintech and services hubs
Barbados just passed a crypto licensing bill in its House; Cayman already hosts over 30,000 funds. How the two hubs differ and which suits your business.
Attention Is All You Need, in plain English
The 2017 Google paper that introduced the Transformer, the design behind ChatGPT and most AI tools today. What it showed, how it works and its limits.
Amber Group aims for Jamaica’s first Cultural LLM
Amber's National AI Lab in Jamaica has 150 trainees and plans a 'Cultural LLM'. What's confirmed, what's still a plan, and how it compares with Maestro AI.