UNESCO: PHL has yet to have its “house in order” for AI adoption

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said on Friday that the Philippines does not have its “house in order” and is adapting slowly to artificial intelligence (AI) compared to other Southeast Asian countries. 

“The Philippines has yet to get its house in order, as I’ve mentioned in the report. If you compare it, stepping back to the Southeast Asian countries, we’re kind of left behind,” UNESCO AI Expert Mark F. Manantan told BusinessWorld at the sidelines of an event. 

“I wouldn’t say we’re running behind, but we’re slowly picking up. It’s patchy, but it’s trending upwards; the process is just slow,” he added. 

A report by the Worldwide Independent Network of Market Research (WIN) in August found that the Philippines, with 54.7 points out of 100, ranked 11th out of 38 countries globally, but placed fourth lowest among other Asia-Pacific nations. 

“When we compare ourselves to Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam, they’re moving at a pace where they’re already pilot testing AI solutions,” Mr. Manantan said. 

“We are still kind of in the stage where we’re sorting out the fundamentals of our AI governance, our AI ecosystem,” he added. “I hope that we don’t see it as a competition per se, but also as an inspiration that we can learn from our neighbors.” 

According to the Philippines’ AI readiness assessment report by UNESCO, one of the prevailing issues contributing to the slow adoption of AI in the country includes “poor digital infrastructure, siloed policymaking, bureaucratic inertia, lagging investments in national research and development, outdated legal and regulatory frameworks and guidelines.” 

“It points to the lingering structural challenges that we have as far as infrastructure is concerned,” Mr. Manantan said. “All of those core fundamental elements that would really create an enabling AI environment.” 

Meanwhile, the Department of Science and Technology (DoST) Secretary Renato U. Solidum, Jr. underscored that the country’s AI adoption is “slightly above middle” compared to other neighboring countries. 

“We’re in the middle or slightly above the middle, compared to many other countries despite the fact that we are just starting in terms of having an integrated effort,” he told BusinessWorld in an interview. 

Mr. Solidum added that to reap the full potential of AI adoption, a multi-sectoral approach must be taken to upskill and reskill workers. 

“We need to put in more effort on the upscaling, reskilling of workers so that our current private sector industries can be more effective and efficient with the use of AI,” he said. 

“Definitely it is a team effort, other departments would need to be doing their thing,” he added. “We should approach the use of AI not with brute compute power, but how to develop innovative programs so that non-experts can still use AI.” — Almira Louise S. Martinez