ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) holds a lot of promise in helping nations build an inclusive future where technology is harnessed in a way that empowers the work force and reduces inequality.
During the Asian Forum on Enterprise for Society in Pasay City, Stephanie Sy, founder of data science firm Thinking Machines, said AI has accelerated inequality in the last five years, translating to lost jobs in developing nations.
“We need new business models for how we can build a better future with AI,” Ms. Sy said.
Featured in this year’s Forbes “30 Under 30” list for Asia, Ms. Sy stressed the need for a shift in imagination and a closer collaboration among stakeholders that will be crucial in developing technology that will allow humans to use AI to augment what they do instead of taking away their jobs.
“If you give the task to a technologist and you define it purely by reducing this metric such as bringing down call time per person by 30 seconds, they will build a tech that does that. But if you want us to build a system that integrates humans, you need to work with us,” she said.
The impact of the applications of AI today has barely scratched the surface of its potential, but much of the fear and uncertainty of the technology are caused by misconceptions and lack of understanding, particularly of decision makers, about what it is and what it does, said Erika Fille T. Legara, data scientist at the Asian Institute of Management.
“It is not necessarily humans versus machines. The future, to me, is humans working together with machines to address the challenges we are going to face,” said Kathy Gong, co-founder and chief executive officer of China-based WafaGames.
Data and AI will fuel the next wave of technology, and Ms. Sy said the Philippines must address the disconnect between the skills of its graduates and the requirements of businesses to thrive in the rapidly changing environment.
She said the BPO sector needs 200,000 people with a background on information technology and engineering, but the Philippines only produces 150,000 graduates of these courses annually.
To equip today’s work force with the demands of the future workplace, education must be focused on exercising intelligence, developing thinking and building skill instead of just transmission of knowledge, said Derrick Latreille, chief learning officer at AC Education, Inc.
“The world of education today must not be content-driven anymore. It should be driven by skills and competency. We should not be teaching our kids what to know. We should be teaching them how to know,” Phinma Education Holdings President Chito B. Salazar said.
The fear is, Mr. Salazar said, that the poor may not have access to these new learning systems, leading to more of them being left behind by advancement in technology.
Vice-President Maria Leonor G. Robredo, in her keynote address, stressed that businesses “must not make the mistake of measuring success in terabytes and instead refocus on the human condition.”
“We must increasingly make sure that the human agenda is not subsumed by the tech agenda. The fourth industrial revolution should not be about machines — it should keep the focus on our humanity,” Ms. Robredo said. — Krista Angela M. Montealegre

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