Overview:
Two Haitian tech organizations are launching the primary Ayiti AI Hackathon, from November 28 to 30, to coach and join younger innovators utilizing synthetic intelligence to create native options for Haiti’s challenges in sectors like training, well being, and agriculture. Profitable groups will obtain tech tools, software program licenses, Utility Programming Interface (API) credit, and entry to a community of mentors and professionals for continued collaboration.
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haiti’s rising tech scene is getting extra increase this yr as Syntax Studio and Akademi, put together to host the primary Ayiti AI Hackathon, going down Nov. 28-30 in Port-au-Prince. The three-day competitors goals to equip younger builders with sensible AI expertise and encourage them to design modern, native options to Haiti’s structural issues.
The 2 organizations are a part of a brand new technology of Haitian tech innovators which might be stepping as much as deal with the nation’s largest challenges — from agriculture to training — by synthetic intelligence.
“We wished to create an area the place younger Haitian expertise might perceive, experiment with, and construct utilizing AI, whether or not fixing challenges in agriculture, healthcare, or training, based mostly on their very own realities,” Kenley Jean, founder and coordinator of Ayiti AI, mentioned to The Haitian Occasions.
Ayiti AI Hackathon comes as synthetic intelligence more and more shapes younger folks’s lives worldwide. Organizers, resembling Jean and Castelline Tilus, founding father of Akademi, say the hackathon will assist place Haitian builders as lively contributors to technological innovation — difficult the concept AI is proscribed to main firms or elite analysis facilities.
“We wished to create an area the place younger Haitian expertise might perceive, experiment with, and construct utilizing AI, whether or not fixing challenges in agriculture, healthcare, or training, based mostly on their very own realities.”
The organizers of Ayiti AI Hackathon
Hackathons have developed past mere code‑sprints—they’re now world catalysts for youth innovation and social influence. Prior to now few years, worldwide competitions such because the Global AI Hackathon drew more than 1,300 members from over 80 nations, 60 % from creating economies, all working to construct AI options tied to the United Nations Sustainable Growth Objectives. On this context, the Ayiti AI Hackathon—set for Nov. 28‑30 in Port‑au‑Prince—marks a primary for Haiti. Moderately than outsourcing expertise, Haiti positions younger Haitian builders as creators of dwelling‑grown AI options to the nation’s urgent issues. By coaching members in native languages, providing entry to mentors, and concentrating on themes like training, well being and agriculture, organizers resembling Jean and Castelline Tilus, founding father of Akademi, say the hackathon will assist place Haitian builders as lively contributors to technological innovation.
Constructing Haiti’s subsequent tech technology
In preparation for the occasion, members will attend 4 Saturdays of on-line coaching overlaying AI fundamentals and fashionable growth instruments — accessible even to novices. In the course of the hackathon, ten chosen groups will work from Port-au-Prince with entry to dependable web, electrical energy, meals, and mentors.
“No interruptions, no obligatory check-ins, simply targeted constructing time resulting in the ultimate pitch on Sunday afternoon,” says Jean, founding father of Syntax Studio. “It’s intense, however that’s the purpose: see what they’ll construct in 48 hours in an setting the place they’ll simply consider their code.”
Organizers hope the occasion will function a hub for AI democratization in Haiti, guaranteeing that younger folks have entry to instruments and information typically concentrated in massive economies.
“The actual influence will come if these 48 hours grow to be the place to begin for steady observe — builders who proceed studying, coding, connecting, and maybe launching their very own initiatives,” mentioned Jean.
Innovation rooted in Haitian realities
The thought was born from a easy conviction that synthetic intelligence shouldn’t be reserved for main technological powers. It should as a substitute be democratized so that everybody can entry and use it to work extra effectively and rapidly in keeping with their wants. The organizers acknowledge that the nation is stuffed with vivid younger minds, but many lack alternatives and platforms to specific themselves by know-how.
Contributors will design initiatives beneath six themes: well being and well-being, generative AI, training, artwork and tradition, group options, and open innovation. Every theme displays points Haitians face day by day, offering a framework for creativity grounded in native expertise.
Potential initiatives embody Creole-language medical assistants, sensible instruments for small companies, multilingual content material mills, and literacy platforms. Different concepts vary from konpa– and rara-inspired music mills to group platforms for catastrophe alerts and cultural preservation.
“No interruptions, no obligatory check-ins, simply targeted constructing time resulting in the ultimate pitch on Sunday afternoon,”
Kenley Jean, founding father of Syntax Studio.
“These themes are usually not theoretical. Each displays actual challenges and alternatives that Haitians face day-after-day,” organizers mentioned. “The purpose is to point out that when used properly, AI can grow to be a sensible and concrete instrument, not only a stylish buzzword.”
Comparable initiatives, resembling these led by BANJ, have additionally sought to equip younger Haitians with digital and entrepreneurial expertise — signaling a rising ecosystem for know-how and innovation within the nation.
Rewards for innovation and collaboration
On Nov. 30, groups will current their prototypes to a jury of consultants from Haiti’s tech sector. Judges will consider every challenge based mostly on innovation, performance, and presentation — specializing in life like options with measurable influence.
“What we worth is an easy answer that works higher than a fancy however unstable prototype, creativity and adaptation to the Haitian context, and the power to ship one thing concrete in 48 hours,” Jean mentioned.
Profitable groups will obtain tech tools, software program licenses, Utility Programming Interface (API) credit, and entry to a community of mentors and professionals for continued collaboration. Every participant may also be acknowledged throughout the Ayiti AI Hackathon group and its companions.
By this initiative, organizers hope to point out that know-how is usually a drive for inclusion, creativity, and social transformation — pushed by the ingenuity of Haiti’s youth.
“We hope that some members go away with greater than a prototype, a transparent imaginative and prescient of what they’ll construct, fundamental AI expertise to proceed, and a community of friends to collaborate with after the occasion,” Jean mentioned.