theCUBE + NYSE Wired: Actai Global | Andrew Narine, CaribbeanGridAI & Sammarieo Brown, Project LightHouse

More from theCUBE + NYSE Wired: Actai Global

Andrew Narine

Founder

CaribbeanGridAI

Sammarieo Brown

Founder & AI Engineer

Project LightHouse

Info

Andrew Narine, CaribbeanGridAI & Sammarieo Brown, Project LightHouse

Andrew Narine

Founder CaribbeanGridAI

Sammarieo Brown

Founder & AI Engineer Project LightHouse

search

(INTRO)

John Furrier

>> Hello, I'm John Furrier, your host of The Cube here at The Cube's NYSE Wired studio in New York City. Of course, we have a Palo Alto studio connecting Silicon Valley to Wall Street. That's our mission. This is our ACTI Global Series where entrepreneurship, athletes, consumers all get together and innovators to invent the future. It's part of the Global Agentic Buildathon that happened as part of the Future Caribbean effort. 21 days of buildathon. They're presenting here at the NYSE tonight. To investors, media. We have some of the delegates here, entrepreneurs who have made it this far out to present. We're going to hear their story on disaster management, a big topic. It's Mario Brown, Project Lighthouse. Welcome to theCUBE. And in energy engineering, Karunengrid AI Energy. So you got energy disaster. Both are super needed. Energy powers AI. We know what that is. So, so Mario, we'll start with you. You got a presentation coming up. The investors— this is like a dry run for green room prep. Yeah, we got the cameras rolling. This will be online, so this is good. Other investors will watch. So give the pitch.

>> Yeah, absolutely. So over a year ago, Jamaica experienced one of the most catastrophic hurricanes to ever hit the island. That was Hurricane Melissa, and thousands of people were affected, millions of dollars in property losses, right, and damages, and over 120,000 roofs disappeared just like that. And so that gave us a need and a reason to build Project Lighthouse, which is an end-to-end natural disaster and climate management platform that coordinates donations, relief efforts, and evacuations. So apart from the hurricane, Jamaica received about $1.8 billion in donations and payout from a catastrophic bond. And according to the Auditor General's report, less than 2% of that has been paid out to Jamaican citizens in cash. And so we're also building a system that allows Jamaicans to benefit from their own version of what is a, a CAT bond. So in the event in the event of a natural disaster, it pays out directly to the citizens rather than going through the channel of the government. So the citizens have access to direct funding. Over 70% of Jamaican homes are uninsured. And so we want to solve that gap.

John Furrier

>> So the problem is, I'll paraphrase in American, people are skimming off the top. It doesn't go where it is or it's inefficient. All kinds of people are— it's like a black box. Yeah, that's what people tend to view. These things, but people want to donate in the moment. They want to contribute.

>> Exactly.

John Furrier

>> You're going to take that efficiency, make it directly transparent.

>> Exactly.

John Furrier

>> To the distribution. You mentioned end-to-end. So, well, first of all, love the problem. Second one is end-to-end. And in AI, we're seeing agentic workflows that are end-to-end. Each part of the workflow or value chain, depends how you look at it, has consequences for other actions. And if you know what that is, if you make a mistake in one, that causes someone else problems in the, in the workflow. You're starting to see this interrelationship play. I'm assuming you look at the weather, preparedness.

>> Yes.

John Furrier

>> Uh, readiness.

>> Exactly.

John Furrier

>> Um, also support when people do come in. There's a lot of work that has to get done on the ground post-activity. Exactly, exactly. Is that part of the process?

>> Yes, yes. So Project Lighthouse, like I said, is end-to-end. So we're developing state-of-the-art machine learning models that analyzes and predict active systems in the Atlantic. So imagine hurricanes in the early stages and how those are likely to evolve and follow through into real hurricanes that affect Caribbean. So way before hurricane has been announced into something huge, Jamaican citizens or the Caribbean get news to say, okay, we need to evacuate or be prepared. And that's where the Agentek systems and workflows come in because you get automatic alerts to your phone on WhatsApp We're ahead of them.

John Furrier

>> And I think also what I see is that, you know, in AI, this has kind of been a cliché in technology up until this point. We're outcome driven. I mean, look at when you have a disaster, the outcome is just get it done, get it, get out and rebuild, get it, take care of people.

>> Exactly.

John Furrier

>> And on the front end, be ready. So these are outcomes. Yes, you can just prompt engineer that. But if people who do know they want these same outcome, everyone's the same outcome. Okay, well, good luck on your pitch. Okay. Now, energy, you got So you've got great benefit there. But energy also is a future benefit because when you have energy, capital flows.

>> Yeah.

John Furrier

>> AI is powered.

>> Yes.

John Furrier

>> We all know AI is bounded by energy. Yeah. But energy also keeps the lights on and creates a great society. Tell us about your venture.

>> All right. Caribbean Grid is an intelligent moving platform that coordinates energy smoothly and helps the grid operators to move smoothly. Right now in the Caribbean, and this is a very common issue, we've been investing in spending a lot of money in fossil fuels. And I think that we have with our generation, with our sun, with our wind, we should utilize that a lot better. So I've built, I've built a platform to help coordinate that energy a lot better to help out the grid operators because we are going to invest in data centers soon. Right now Trinidad is like going to invest in a data center. We're already signed a data center for 450 megawatts and already relying on more fossil fuels. So imagine now having to power that on top of that. So Caribbean Grid will come into play by showing the grid operators how to maneuver that energy and store the energy a lot better. So for instance, like what Brian was saying, he was saying, if there's a situation where they had a hurricane or whatever, if we had had Caribbean Grid implemented already, the Jamaicans or that situation would be a lot more prepared because we'd be able to forecast the energy a lot more intelligently, and that would help the grid operators to then have energy. When they have the, the natural disasters, they will have stored energy that we could come and still power the lights around people's houses that doesn't have, you know, certain capabilities. Party Grid, for instance, which is a main factor, right? Which is a main factor. And if we're, we're storing the energy in a lot more intelligent way, then we will have energy stored for whatever circumstance, whether it be hazard, whether it be hurricane, whatever. The main factor here is that it helps coordinate the energy and helps the grid operator move the energy in a more intelligent manner rather than— because battery storage helps with timing, solar panels helps with generation. With two of those, we have to coordinate two of those in the right way. For instance, let me look at Barbados for one second. In Barbados, July from September, we have a dry season, it's really, really hot, and that's where ESC is ramped up. So the platform shows the grid operator that that is where we need to store the energy to dispatch that energy in that needed time. Yeah, but right now we're not seeing that. The grid operators are not seeing that, and it's pretty common around the Caribbean because, um, Barbados State Power, that's one of our main, uh, actual, um, power sources in the Caribbean. I go based off of that because the rest of the islands under that have a lower megawatts. So if right now we are currently facing, uh, absorb issue, we are absorbing too much solar and it's crushing it. So right now, if you wanted to implement solar panels in your house in Barbados right now, we have to put you on a pause because we can't control it and we can't absorb it enough. But Caribbean Grid AI will allow you to see it a lot better based on the climate data that we have accomplished, the climate data we've computed and engineered that we could show the grid operator how to manage and how to dispatch energy in the right times.

John Furrier

>> So you create energy, you get that from the energy sources. Yes. You got to distribute it. So, yes, without waste.

>> Yes.

John Furrier

>> So there's a process there.

>> Exactly.

John Furrier

>> And it's also the incentive to give the signals to the grid of who's doing what, where. Exactly. So if I'm going to use solar panels, I want to make sure, one, they can get it. That's checkbox one. And two, There could be incentives. And then finally, to understanding situational awareness. Is that what you're talking about?

>> Exactly. Because if we have a platform that forecasts for the next day and I'm talking about renewables and talking about wind, I'm talking about solar. Two of those are the most natural or the most common renewables in the Caribbean that we really use right now. And Barbados is soon investing in wave energy. So we have to have a platform or methodology to measure and to measure the scale of the sea and the ocean. And right now, Caribbean Grid, they have— well, now have mastered— have a great shape of how the climate is when it comes to grid operator. And you match the data into climatology, then you have a better vision of when to store and prepare for hurricanes, for whatever the situation.

John Furrier

>> Well, energy is a lifeblood of economics. There you go. It powers innovation, everything. It powers the AI.

>> Exactly.

John Furrier

>> And also sovereignty. You got all the elements to create the energy. Exactly. And also, if something bad happens, you got to protect the citizens by having really highly resilient, responsive outcomes.

>> Exactly.

John Furrier

>> Exactly. So there's good synergies there.

>> Yeah. Yeah, man.

John Furrier

>> Well, good luck tonight. And congratulations. I love your mission. Yes, please. And whatever you could do to support it out there, this is the future. Again, sustainability is beyond just sustainability. This is called sovereignty. This is called using electricity and also protecting the citizens. Again, a great use of AI and entrepreneurship coming together. I'm John Furrier, your host of TheCUBE. Thanks for watching.

Andrew Narine, CaribbeanGridAI & Sammarieo Brown, Project LightHouse

search

(INTRO)

John Furrier

>> Hello, I'm John Furrier, your host of The Cube here at The Cube's NYSE Wired studio in New York City. Of course, we have a Palo Alto studio connecting Silicon Valley to Wall Street. That's our mission. This is our ACTI Global Series where entrepreneurship, athletes, consumers all get together and innovators to invent the future. It's part of the Global Agentic Buildathon that happened as part of the Future Caribbean effort. 21 days of buildathon. They're presenting here at the NYSE tonight. To investors, media. We have some of the delegates here, entrepreneurs who have made it this far out to present. We're going to hear their story on disaster management, a big topic. It's Mario Brown, Project Lighthouse. Welcome to theCUBE. And in energy engineering, Karunengrid AI Energy. So you got energy disaster. Both are super needed. Energy powers AI. We know what that is. So, so Mario, we'll start with you. You got a presentation coming up. The investors— this is like a dry run for green room prep. Yeah, we got the cameras rolling. This will be online, so this is good. Other investors will watch. So give the pitch.

>> Yeah, absolutely. So over a year ago, Jamaica experienced one of the most catastrophic hurricanes to ever hit the island. That was Hurricane Melissa, and thousands of people were affected, millions of dollars in property losses, right, and damages, and over 120,000 roofs disappeared just like that. And so that gave us a need and a reason to build Project Lighthouse, which is an end-to-end natural disaster and climate management platform that coordinates donations, relief efforts, and evacuations. So apart from the hurricane, Jamaica received about $1.8 billion in donations and payout from a catastrophic bond. And according to the Auditor General's report, less than 2% of that has been paid out to Jamaican citizens in cash. And so we're also building a system that allows Jamaicans to benefit from their own version of what is a, a CAT bond. So in the event in the event of a natural disaster, it pays out directly to the citizens rather than going through the channel of the government. So the citizens have access to direct funding. Over 70% of Jamaican homes are uninsured. And so we want to solve that gap.

John Furrier

>> So the problem is, I'll paraphrase in American, people are skimming off the top. It doesn't go where it is or it's inefficient. All kinds of people are— it's like a black box. Yeah, that's what people tend to view. These things, but people want to donate in the moment. They want to contribute.

>> Exactly.

John Furrier

>> You're going to take that efficiency, make it directly transparent.

>> Exactly.

John Furrier

>> To the distribution. You mentioned end-to-end. So, well, first of all, love the problem. Second one is end-to-end. And in AI, we're seeing agentic workflows that are end-to-end. Each part of the workflow or value chain, depends how you look at it, has consequences for other actions. And if you know what that is, if you make a mistake in one, that causes someone else problems in the, in the workflow. You're starting to see this interrelationship play. I'm assuming you look at the weather, preparedness.

>> Yes.

John Furrier

>> Uh, readiness.

>> Exactly.

John Furrier

>> Um, also support when people do come in. There's a lot of work that has to get done on the ground post-activity. Exactly, exactly. Is that part of the process?

>> Yes, yes. So Project Lighthouse, like I said, is end-to-end. So we're developing state-of-the-art machine learning models that analyzes and predict active systems in the Atlantic. So imagine hurricanes in the early stages and how those are likely to evolve and follow through into real hurricanes that affect Caribbean. So way before hurricane has been announced into something huge, Jamaican citizens or the Caribbean get news to say, okay, we need to evacuate or be prepared. And that's where the Agentek systems and workflows come in because you get automatic alerts to your phone on WhatsApp We're ahead of them.

John Furrier

>> And I think also what I see is that, you know, in AI, this has kind of been a cliché in technology up until this point. We're outcome driven. I mean, look at when you have a disaster, the outcome is just get it done, get it, get out and rebuild, get it, take care of people.

>> Exactly.

John Furrier

>> And on the front end, be ready. So these are outcomes. Yes, you can just prompt engineer that. But if people who do know they want these same outcome, everyone's the same outcome. Okay, well, good luck on your pitch. Okay. Now, energy, you got So you've got great benefit there. But energy also is a future benefit because when you have energy, capital flows.

>> Yeah.

John Furrier

>> AI is powered.

>> Yes.

John Furrier

>> We all know AI is bounded by energy. Yeah. But energy also keeps the lights on and creates a great society. Tell us about your venture.

>> All right. Caribbean Grid is an intelligent moving platform that coordinates energy smoothly and helps the grid operators to move smoothly. Right now in the Caribbean, and this is a very common issue, we've been investing in spending a lot of money in fossil fuels. And I think that we have with our generation, with our sun, with our wind, we should utilize that a lot better. So I've built, I've built a platform to help coordinate that energy a lot better to help out the grid operators because we are going to invest in data centers soon. Right now Trinidad is like going to invest in a data center. We're already signed a data center for 450 megawatts and already relying on more fossil fuels. So imagine now having to power that on top of that. So Caribbean Grid will come into play by showing the grid operators how to maneuver that energy and store the energy a lot better. So for instance, like what Brian was saying, he was saying, if there's a situation where they had a hurricane or whatever, if we had had Caribbean Grid implemented already, the Jamaicans or that situation would be a lot more prepared because we'd be able to forecast the energy a lot more intelligently, and that would help the grid operators to then have energy. When they have the, the natural disasters, they will have stored energy that we could come and still power the lights around people's houses that doesn't have, you know, certain capabilities. Party Grid, for instance, which is a main factor, right? Which is a main factor. And if we're, we're storing the energy in a lot more intelligent way, then we will have energy stored for whatever circumstance, whether it be hazard, whether it be hurricane, whatever. The main factor here is that it helps coordinate the energy and helps the grid operator move the energy in a more intelligent manner rather than— because battery storage helps with timing, solar panels helps with generation. With two of those, we have to coordinate two of those in the right way. For instance, let me look at Barbados for one second. In Barbados, July from September, we have a dry season, it's really, really hot, and that's where ESC is ramped up. So the platform shows the grid operator that that is where we need to store the energy to dispatch that energy in that needed time. Yeah, but right now we're not seeing that. The grid operators are not seeing that, and it's pretty common around the Caribbean because, um, Barbados State Power, that's one of our main, uh, actual, um, power sources in the Caribbean. I go based off of that because the rest of the islands under that have a lower megawatts. So if right now we are currently facing, uh, absorb issue, we are absorbing too much solar and it's crushing it. So right now, if you wanted to implement solar panels in your house in Barbados right now, we have to put you on a pause because we can't control it and we can't absorb it enough. But Caribbean Grid AI will allow you to see it a lot better based on the climate data that we have accomplished, the climate data we've computed and engineered that we could show the grid operator how to manage and how to dispatch energy in the right times.

John Furrier

>> So you create energy, you get that from the energy sources. Yes. You got to distribute it. So, yes, without waste.

>> Yes.

John Furrier

>> So there's a process there.

>> Exactly.

John Furrier

>> And it's also the incentive to give the signals to the grid of who's doing what, where. Exactly. So if I'm going to use solar panels, I want to make sure, one, they can get it. That's checkbox one. And two, There could be incentives. And then finally, to understanding situational awareness. Is that what you're talking about?

>> Exactly. Because if we have a platform that forecasts for the next day and I'm talking about renewables and talking about wind, I'm talking about solar. Two of those are the most natural or the most common renewables in the Caribbean that we really use right now. And Barbados is soon investing in wave energy. So we have to have a platform or methodology to measure and to measure the scale of the sea and the ocean. And right now, Caribbean Grid, they have— well, now have mastered— have a great shape of how the climate is when it comes to grid operator. And you match the data into climatology, then you have a better vision of when to store and prepare for hurricanes, for whatever the situation.

John Furrier

>> Well, energy is a lifeblood of economics. There you go. It powers innovation, everything. It powers the AI.

>> Exactly.

John Furrier

>> And also sovereignty. You got all the elements to create the energy. Exactly. And also, if something bad happens, you got to protect the citizens by having really highly resilient, responsive outcomes.

>> Exactly.

John Furrier

>> Exactly. So there's good synergies there.

>> Yeah. Yeah, man.

John Furrier

>> Well, good luck tonight. And congratulations. I love your mission. Yes, please. And whatever you could do to support it out there, this is the future. Again, sustainability is beyond just sustainability. This is called sovereignty. This is called using electricity and also protecting the citizens. Again, a great use of AI and entrepreneurship coming together. I'm John Furrier, your host of TheCUBE. Thanks for watching.