RELYING on foreign-developed artificial intelligence tools-or not having AI sovereignty-is the ‘greater danger’ than the simple act of letting robots take over the economy, according to a central bank official.
‘If you look at the Philippine economy, we are mainly users and trainers of AI. Our behaviors train AI. The kinds of questions we ask help train the AI. We love to adopt these kinds of things. The problem is all of these AI tools are developed and kept in other countries, not here,’ BSP Technical Advisor for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics Hub Mark Anthony Perez said at the recent Chamber of Thrift Banks’ (CTB) General Membership Meeting.
‘None of it is developed here. Therefore, we become dependent on using theirs. That becomes a problem in the long run,’ added Perez.
Explaining the long-run consequence of depending on foreign-developed AI tools, the central bank official illustrated how the shift to cloud-based operations, particularly in factories, creates risk for economies which are reliant on foreign AI tools instead of having control over their own.
‘Unlike before, [you had] factories where, because of low cost of labor, the factories move here and therefore, there’s a technology transfer,’ Perez said.
He added: ‘Now, with AI, they don’t need to move because it’s all in the cloud. In which case, you end up being users, not developers and creators.’
This concern, Perez underscored, warrants preparation moving forward, adding: ‘Because that changes the equation in the future.’
‘That’s probably a greater danger than robots taking over,’ he emphasized further.
AI asymmetry, AI sovereignty
On the sidelines of the event, Perez dubbed this situation as ‘AI asymmetry’ wherein the development of AI is ‘highly’ concentrated in the well-developed countries.
‘And the rest of the world is basically using their models and their systems,’ the BSP official noted.
‘And then basically as a result of platform as a service, software as a service, infrastructure as a service. Which results in us not developing our own. So, this is why in many countries, they are starting to talk about AI sovereignty,’ he added.
To be able to build AI sovereignty, he said an economy would have to be equipped with skills, infrastructure, and capabilities.
‘So, it will take time,’ he emphasized further.
Asked about the advantages of having the Philippines embrace being an AI-sovereign economy, he said: ‘Less dependence on the foreign AI models is one. We can design it and build it according to what our own datasets show and what our behaviors show.’
Another upside, he said, is ‘We have control over how much it costs and where it can get used.’