The Department of Trade and Industry is asking the Senate to allocate an additional P200 million to its proposed budget for 2024 for its artificial intelligence research center.
Trade Undersecretary Rafaelita Aldaba said the amount, which was not included in the 2023 and 2024 National Expenditure Program, would be used for the construction of its building to house data scientists and research engineers, salaries for its employees, and for the purchase of “super computers.”
Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said a new building was suggested by the department “but there are developments that might enable us to use new locations,” including the space provided by a private company.
Aldaba said they were not able to utilize the space since “we don’t have the resources to hire people, as well as to procure the super computers that would be needed.”
“But we do a lot of coordination, we do a lot of workshops and seminars to help people become more aware of the usefulness of adapting AI technology,” Aldaba told the Senate finance sub-committee during the hearing on the DTI’s proposed budget for next year.
Aldaba said the DTI can, for the meantime, commence with its research and development on AI even without its own building.
“We have an AI roadmap and the center for AI research is just one of the recommendations. We are at the same time also forming a task force that would support government in terms of crafting governance framework on AI,” she added.
She said the suggested building will be the center of research and development on AI “for us to become an AI center of excellence in the region in the near future.”
Aldaba said the building will house the DTI’s data research scientists and research engineers who will be conducting AI research and development aimed at supporting the needs of industries, including micro-small, and medium enterprises.
“It’s also going to provide training capacity building on AI and so new products and services would come out from this center,” she added.
Pascual said the research and development center was modelled from the A Star of Singapore.
“It supports industry, not academic research. It’s a way to sensitize to help MSMEs adapt AI in their operations. The large companies can take care of themselves. They’re getting consultants from everywhere including consultants from abroad to implement AI solutions to their problems,” Pascual said.
“These small medium enterprises would need assistance. This is the center that will do that, plus the continuing research on the impact of AI on employment, which jobs will be affected and then the issue of AI ethics is going to addressed here. It’s not just doing a job,” Pascual added.
Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda said the DTI should not wait for the construction of its new AI research and development center before it starts with building capacity of people to AI.
Sen. Mark Villar,a former public works and highways secretary, said constructing a building would take at least two years.
