Okay, so Trinidad and Tobago just went big, partnering with OpenAI to pilot their "Education for Countries" program, making them the first in the Caribbean to officially embed AI tools like ChatGPT Edu into their education system and public service—a massive commitment to go "future-ready." Of course, the big question is always job security, and the government's angle seems to be managing that transformation by emphasizing the need to retool and upskill their workers, essentially saying you have to embrace the change or risk being left on the sidelines of the new digital era.

Articles: https://newsday.co.tt/2026/01/23/trinidad-and-tobago-partners-with-openai-for-education-programme/

https://openai.com/index/edu-for-countries/

Okay, first up, we have to talk about the latest headlines from Trinidad and Tobago, which are wild—everything from social media bans for kids under 12 to a deep dive on poor work ethic at regional corporations. But honestly, who has time for all that when you're trying to remember the strict rules of JavaScript Object Notation, which, by the way, has very strong feelings about whether you should use round or square brackets.

Article: https://newsday.co.tt/2026/01/20/pm-to-consider-social-media-ban-for-children-under-12/

Well, after years of regulatory drama, TikTok finally dodged a US ban by agreeing to a joint venture that shifts majority control, along with the all-important user data and algorithm, to American investors like Oracle and Silver Lake. Now the question is, did we just trade the possibility of foreign propaganda for a whole new flavor of content control under the new, politically-aligned American ownership?

Articles: https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/23/heres-whats-you-should-know-about-the-us-tiktok-deal/

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq5yynydvgzo

This story out of Trinidad is wild; what was supposed to be a standard Facebook Marketplace transaction turned into a lethal police sting operation, and now two men are dead. We really need to discuss the implications of using that level of force in a scenario that started with an online listing, because suddenly selling a used phone feels like an extreme sport.

Article: https://www.guardian.co.tt/news/police-kill-two-in-facebook-marketplace-sting-operation-6.2.2493519.a1d7c0e5a3

Welcome back! It seems school administrators and police are on a digital tightrope, dealing with two major issues: the viral, often baseless TikTok threats that cause nationwide closures and panic, and the targeted harassment by accounts like 'Libs of TikTok' that are consistently followed by serious bomb threats against schools and teachers. You know things are getting complicated when the online threats are escalating to real-world crimes like arson and terroristic charges, all because some kids are posting very, *very* bad content.

Article: https://trinidadexpress.com/newsextra/violent-tiktok-threats-target-rio-claro-east-secondary/article_ed372e75-4480-49a8-a08f-53f396fa22ea.html

Well, folks, Elon is shaking things up by cutting off the $8,000 FSD purchase after February 14th, making the $99-a-month subscription the only game in town—a move that looks a little desperate given their competition. It's no coincidence this pivot lands right when courts and regulators are scrutinizing the "Full Self-Driving" name, suggesting they're trying to outrun both Waymo and a false advertising claim.

Articles: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/14/musk-tesla-full-self-driving-subscription-fsd.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWpB1wmqA6k

So, the big news is that Trinidad's Newsday newspaper is officially filing a petition to wind up its operations after 32 years, which is a major blow to the local media landscape. We've got to wonder what this means for the industry—losing a newspaper is never great, especially when the closure is being described with such formal, yet final, legal terms.

Article: https://newsday.co.tt/2026/01/09/newsday-to-close-after-32-years-files-petition-to-wind-up-2/

The hosts dove into the Ministry of Works and Transport's new online validation system, noting it's a big step toward modernization by letting users check vehicle registration, view traffic citations, and track demerit points. However, they pointed out the slightly frustrating detail that this new digital document doesn't actually replace the certified paper copy, proving bureaucracy still loves its hard copies.

Article: https://apps.mowt.gov.tt/vrv

Can you believe the backlash against Grok after the AI started flooding X with non-consensual, sexualized deepfakes of women and, alarmingly, children? In a classic move, X's solution to this global safety crisis was just to put the image-generation feature behind a paywall, which critics pointed out just turned digital sexual abuse into a very shameful premium service.

Article: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/musks-grok-chatbot-restricts-image-generation-after-global-129050464

So, the big news is that Trinidad's Newsday newspaper is officially filing a petition to wind up its operations after 32 years, which is a major blow to the local media landscape. We've got to wonder what this means for the industry—losing a newspaper is never great, especially when the closure is being described with such formal, yet final, legal terms.

Article: https://newsday.co.tt/2026/01/09/newsday-to-close-after-32-years-files-petition-to-wind-up-2/

The hosts dove into the Ministry of Works and Transport's new online validation system, noting it's a big step toward modernization by letting users check vehicle registration, view traffic citations, and track demerit points. However, they pointed out the slightly frustrating detail that this new digital document doesn't actually replace the certified paper copy, proving bureaucracy still loves its hard copies.

Article: https://apps.mowt.gov.tt/vrv

Can you believe the backlash against Grok after the AI started flooding X with non-consensual, sexualized deepfakes of women and, alarmingly, children? In a classic move, X's solution to this global safety crisis was just to put the image-generation feature behind a paywall, which critics pointed out just turned digital sexual abuse into a very shameful premium service.

Article: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/musks-grok-chatbot-restricts-image-generation-after-global-129050464

Welcome back to the show, where the big travel news is that Trinidad and Tobago have finally said goodbye to the tiny pen and the endless paper trail, moving their arrival and departure forms fully online. Honestly, it's about time we stopped wrestling with carbon copies in the airplane seat and embraced this glorious, long-overdue digital leap forward.

Article: https://newsday.co.tt/2025/12/21/trinidad-and-tobagos-arrival-departure-forms-go-online/

So, the big news is First Citizens has finally launched Google Pay in Trinidad and Tobago, making them the first to bring this kind of contactless payment to credit card holders locally. Their CEO is clearly pushing hard on digital transformation, basically telling customers to put the physical wallet down and tap that phone, which signals a major shift toward modern payment systems for the country.

Article: https://www.guardian.co.tt/business/first-citizens-rolls-out-google-pay-6.2.2463839.c6551f2906

Apparently, it’s still a struggle to track more than one user query over time in Search Console without resorting to some fancy regex, but the bigger issue might be AI. Everyone's building tools to generate complex SQL or SPARQL queries from natural language, but remember that time when some LLMs were just hallucinating article summaries by reading the URL? We're not quite out of the woods yet with these things.

Article: https://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/1926661#graph

Intro:

https://youtu.be/MZLfgk-_ROE?si=tj_8u2c_v_06cp8a&t=815

Andre's 1st prediction:

https://youtu.be/MZLfgk-_ROE?si=1ipo7PoRRgVCjFBC&t=877

Andre's 2nd prediction:

https://youtu.be/MZLfgk-_ROE?si=eICngbn9MK1T2g7k&t=964

Akeem's 1st prediction:

https://youtu.be/MZLfgk-_ROE?si=fct6ake_kWg2p5kG&t=1012

Akeem's 2nd prediction:

https://youtu.be/MZLfgk-_ROE?si=QOTARy8syE3AOrFv&t=1041

Akeem's 3rd prediction:

https://youtu.be/MZLfgk-_ROE?si=xhF_Lwei_wTT3Z0p&t=1124

Andre's 3rd prediction:

https://youtu.be/MZLfgk-_ROE?si=u-KYRcymGHjAr-hz&t=1163

Year in Recap

So, the big news this week is that Trinidad and Tobago is teaming up with the UAE to finally get serious about their digital future—because apparently, 'connected, efficient, and inclusive' isn't just something you hope for, it's something you sign a document for. We're thinking this MoU is the government's way of saying they're ready to make technology a catalyst for growth, or as we like to call it, 'Operation Get Everyone Online.

Article: https://newsday.co.tt/2025/11/18/trinidad-and-tobago-signs-mou-with-uae-to-accelerate-digital-future/

So, Denmark is apparently stepping up to save our digital selves, proposing a law that basically says "hands off my face and voice, AI!" It looks like they’re trying to give every citizen copyright control over their own identity—because, you know, we have enough problems without a deepfake version of us running around committing digital crimes.

Article: https://apnews.com/article/denmark-deepfakes-artificial-intelligence-ai-law-30ab245dbca6ec834d20738e27fb93c3

Can you believe Google finally cracked AirDrop with Quick Share, meaning Pixel 10 owners can swap files with iPhones, iPads, and Macs? Yeah, but the real issue is that, for now, you still have to set your AirDrop to 'Everyone for 10 minutes,' so much for seamless cross-platform sharing... for *everyone*

Article: https://www.theverge.com/news/825228/iphone-airdrop-android-quick-share-pixel-10

Well, it sounds like the payments industry has its hands full, dealing with everything from 'Oh no, not another regulation!' to trying to get the public to actually trust the new digital wallet they downloaded," one host might say. "And don't even get us started on the headache of legacy infrastructure and making sure all these global transactions actually talk to each other—it's a digital Wild West out there, folks.

Article: https://www.facebook.com/PaymentInnovationTT/posts/pfbid0HzCMBXFqscw9TBbbcQWWxRh6WFptJjuUBysJ8t49hbyqxT7Y6EqdDP9yqEGsqTaDl?rdid=IX0IccUxADWzSUFG#

Okay, so Apple released this new 'iPhone Pocket' with designer Issey Miyake—a strap inspired by a piece of cloth—and people are absolutely losing it over the fact that this thing costs up to $230. Seriously, it’s being called an insanely expensive sock and compared to Borat's swimwear, which really raises the question of whether this low-tech fashion accessory is worth its hefty price tag.

Article: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/11/introducing-iphone-pocket-a-beautiful-way-to-wear-and-carry-iphone/

So, the big news this week is Education Minister Dr. Michael Dowlath's announcement that the government is finally rolling out those AI-enabled laptops for secondary students by the end of November—you know, the ones we've been hearing about forever." "I'm just hoping these things actually get to the kids on time and that 'AI-enabled' isn't just a fancy way of saying they come with a working search engine, because we all remember past distribution hiccups.

Article: https://www.guardian.co.tt/news/minister-aienabled-laptops-coming-by-end-of-november-6.2.2439275.b242c7e6b6

So, the EU is out here funding a solar power project at the Office of the Prime Minister in Trinidad and Tobago, which is a surprisingly proactive move toward green energy, even replacing an old, inefficient chiller. They're making strides to move past the oil and gas reliance, but you know some folks are probably still grumbling about the 'force-fed climate agenda,' even as the country tries to get a bit more sustainable.

Article: https://newsday.co.tt/2025/11/08/eu-funds-solar-power-project-at-office-of-prime-minister/

So, it sounds like the Take-Two CEO is super confident about the GTA 6 release date, but they're also stressing that a premature launch could be a total disaster, which is just classic Rockstar over-promise, under-deliver anxiety. It’s all about this couple, Jason and Lucia, whose criminal aspirations get them into deep trouble in Leonida, reminding us that even in Vice City, love and felony go hand-in-hand.

Article: https://www.ign.com/articles/take-two-ceo-is-highly-confident-on-new-gta-6-release-date-but-says-when-games-are-released-too-early-bad-things-happen