India AI crackdown expected to steer IT investment to PHL
By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Reporter
MORE artificial intelligence (AI) investment could find its way into the Philippines if the Indian government continues to stiffen regulations on the deployment of AI tools, the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) said.
“Basically, if the Indian government makes it harder for AI to be deployed, the Philippines, as the second-largest destination for outsourcing, can get a larger share of the AI investment,” Dominic Vincent Ligot told BusinessWorld via Viber.
In an advisory issued March 1, the Indian government asked technology firms to seek approval before releasing AI tools to the public, Reuters reported.
Mr. Ligot said that the Philippines ranks first in terms of monthly search volume for AI tools and fourth in terms of AI usage, which suggests a potential opportunity should other jurisdictions make things difficult for AI developers.
“We have encouraging statistics on interest in and usage of AI. We should step up our own position to be open and supportive of AI innovation but also be wary of risks,” he said.
“Misuse of AI is the top risk, such as deepfakes and fake news,” he added. “There are also other discussions like copyright infringement, privacy, and, of course, the fear of job displacement.”
“We’re supportive of risk management regulation and incentives, but we are worried about a blanket ban,” he said, citing Rep. Juan Carlos C. Atayde’s House Bill 9448, which aims to regulate the use of AI and automation to protect jobs.
“That’s a little bit more worrisome because it seems like a blanket ban that you can’t use AI for HR or something like that, or you can’t necessarily replace people with automation, which is already being done,” he added.
He said the industry is seeking incentives for developing AI tools or for technological innovation.
“There are no incentives, which is what created the BPO (business process outsourcing) industry, which, with tax breaks and the lifting of the foreign ownership limit, suddenly created a middle class.”
“If you want to do AI, you cannot get funding, and even one of our members was complaining that the Bureau of Customs would even give you a hard time importing GPUs (graphics processing units) and data center equipment,” he added.
“I don’t know if the India thing will stick… but since that’s the signal right now, the number two Philippines can swoop in to take the AI jobs,” he added.
Mr. Ligot said that around 45% of IBPAP members already experimenting with the use of AI, while less than a third are at deployment cases.
“Most of the use cases are Agent Assist (technology). So what that does is it doesn’t eliminate the agent; it just allows the agent to do five to 10 times more calls faster,” he added.