NIGHT OWL
The artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, ChatGPT, has quickly become popular with its ability to provide detailed responses on many areas of knowledge. It can also be used for content creation, data analysis, and code generation — certainly a helpful tool for many organizations. There are already conversations on how the technology can help scientists study the red planet Mars, perhaps even produce a scientific journal.
AI is a promising technology. It has been improving the way we do things — smart replies in emails, predictive searches, navigating cities with real time traffic updates, performing tasks through voice command, face recognition, to name a few. AI has been impacting our everyday lives. It is a black swan event. We can no longer stop it. We must accept it and build regulations around it.
For the Philippines, the use of new and emerging technologies can help advance our efforts on inclusive development and gender equality. Already, the digital divide is becoming the new face of gender inequality. We must harness new technologies such as AI to reverse this.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. acknowledges that emerging technologies could solve many of our lingering problems, but also emphasizes the dangers it could cause, thus, the need for our governance structures to keep up.
Last March, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) led the conduct of the event, “Artificial Intelligence Dialogue: Gender Based AI Policy and Standard,” to develop awareness among policymakers of the importance of inclusion of gender-sensitive AI in the regulatory processes; build capacity among female policymakers to lead AI regulation in the country and enhancing standards for the same; and foster knowledge and experience exchanges on AI policy between policymakers in Southeast Asia.
The training covered AI policies at global, regional and local levels, as well as AI context, risks, and measures to minimize them, and AI standards development. It also delved on the gender and societal risks in AI, ethics of policy making in AI, and gender-responsive standard.
Artificial intelligence has been changing the way we do things. It is starting to revolutionize how we manage businesses. It has been enabling doctors and hospitals to better analyze patients’ health data. It is helping improve student’s learning experience based on their needs. Governments can design better policies and make better decisions through AI.
There is no need to be afraid of this technology. Instead, we must harness its potential to uplift our citizens, our local industries, and our economy. We only need to regulate it and put in place the necessary policies and ensure that these are inclusive, gender-sensitive, and ethical.