By Admin. Updated 7:45 a.m., Friday, November 6, 2026, Atlantic Standard Time (GMT-4).
Developers in St Vincent and the Grenadines who want to understand how artificial intelligence really works – not just how to use it – will soon have the chance to learn from one of their own.
Vincentian Machine Learning Scientist and Engineer Dr Gamal Crichton is launching a series of five online courses on Large Language Models (LLMs) and neural networks, the technology behind popular AI tools such as chatbots and coding assistants. The courses are aimed at developers living in, or connected to, St Vincent and the Grenadines and the wider Eastern Caribbean, with the goal of building local knowledge and capacity in a field that is rapidly reshaping economies, careers and everyday life.
The series will tackle questions many people have been asking. What is actually going on inside an LLM? How are these systems trained? How can developers use them in their own programs? And must the region depend on others for access to the technology?
The first course, Components of Neural Networks, begins on 14 November and is now open for sign-up. It will be followed by Training Neural Networks from 9 January 2027, Using Neural Networks from 13 February, Inference Engineering from 20 March and AI Hardware from 17 April, with the series wrapping up in May 2027. The courses will cover the subject in technical detail, both in theory and in practice.
Each course is made up of four weekly sessions held on Saturdays from 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm, SVG time. Participants who cannot attend live will not miss out, as every session will be recorded and made available for the duration of the course. Help with queries will also be on hand throughout.
The cost is EC$50 per course, payable by the second session. Discounts are available to anyone who signs up for three or more courses.
Dr Crichton said the courses are likely to be most useful to those with a background in computer science. However, anyone with an interest is welcome to sign up and attend the first session before deciding whether to continue. Participants will need a computer and a stable internet connection.
The facilitator brings considerable experience to the classroom. Dr Crichton has spent more than five years working in AI roles with financial technology companies in London. He holds a PhD in Natural Language Processing from the University of Cambridge, as well as master’s and undergraduate degrees in Computer Science from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill. At home, he has served the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College as both a Software Engineer and a Lecturer.
The initiative comes at a time when AI is changing how people write, work, write code and interact with their phones and computers. For a small island state, having homegrown experts who understand the technology at its core – rather than simply consuming it – could prove valuable as the global economy shifts.
Those interested can register and find more details on each course at iks.gamalcrichton.com/campaigns/svg-ai-2026-2027/.
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