Anti-Money Laundering Council Executive Director Matthew David speaks before the Senate committee on finance chaired by Senator Grace Poe on Tuesday, August 27, 2024. (Screenshot from Senate of the Philippines/Youtube)
MANILA, Philippines — The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) will procure P50-million worth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) subscription to upgrade and streamline documenting services.
This is what AMLC Executive Director Atty. Matthew David said when asked by Senator Grace Poe in a Senate panel on finance if the council has plans to explore the possibility of utilizing AI in feeding information coming from documents submitted to the council.
“Would you be able to maybe explore in the future, an AI program that will do an analysis based on the factors that you feed in… The reason why I’m asking this is that it’s not humanly possible to actually go through every document submitted to your agency so have you had any study to consider, let’s say an AI upgrade of your services?” Poe, chairperson of the finance committee, asked.
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David said that the AMLC that the AI project is set to be complete within the year and is needing a subscription to be operational annually.
“The AI project is already under development. We’re about to complete it within this year. We already procured suppliers more than a year ago and in fact, madam chair, one of the proposed budgets is the procurement of the subscription for the AI which is, in our proposed budget, is more than 50 million,” he noted.
“If you develop an AI, you also need a subscription annually, that’s the biggest chunk of the ICT [Information and Communication Technology] products we are procuring for next year,” he added.
The AMLC executive chief said that the procurement of the AI subscription will be done after the completion of the AI project.
“It will be completed this year but it will be operational early next year, provided that we procure the subscription. After the completion of the development, we will procure our subscription for the AI which is worth more or less 50 million,” David stated.
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When Poe asked what company they will purchase the subscription from, David answered that it’s from MDI Company, a local company, and is in a joint venture with Tiger Incorporated, an IT company.
The senator then asked more about the companies that will provide the AI services in which David said that they will submit the details.
“I’d hate for it to stall again if you have a company that is capitalized, no real track record,” Poe noted.
In the budget hearing, David said that the proposed budget for the AMLC is P364 million.