Lawmaker seeks AI ‘super regulator’

MANILA, Philippines — A senior lawmaker on Sunday renewed his push for the creation of a national “super body” to regulate and craft policies on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the Philippines.

Surigao del Norte Rep Robert Ace Barbers said that his House Bill No. 7396, filed in March last year, seeks the setup of a multi-agency AI Development Authority (Aida), which is aimed at optimizing the benefits of using the technology while preventing its negative effects.

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Barbers noted that almost all countries worldwide have begun crafting policies and laws to regulate and further broaden AI research and development.

“We Filipinos need to embrace AI because we cannot avoid it,” he said, adding that we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be left behind due to the technology’s expected huge societal impact, particularly on education, business, and the economy.

The veteran lawmaker said that while some agencies, such as the Department of Science and Technology, the University of the Philippines, and the Department of Education, have crafted or are developing their respective AI policies, “we still have no national agency yet that would regulate it in a strategic and/or systematic manner.”

Barbers filed HB 7396, or proposed AI Development and Regulation Act of the Philippines, seeking the creation of the Aida, which would undertake the tasks, duties, and responsibilities for the implementation of a comprehensive framework for the development and regulation of AI in the country. —Jeannette I. Andrade