Ben Madilynn
TO PREVENT the rise of unemployment, Senator Joel Villanueva called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and other government agencies to accelerate preparations for the Philippine labor market to embrace and adjust to Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology.
“We welcome new technology to make work life easy and lift productivity, but this requires DOLE and other agencies to work double time to make our workforce technically adept and equipped with crucial skills like critical thinking and problem solving, otherwise we would just be counting job losses,” Villanueva said in a press release Wednesday, July 3, 2024.
Villanueva’s Proposed Senate Resolution 990 aims to inquire the government’s readiness in tackling the influence of artificial intelligence on the labor market and the future of work.
“AI will move from a ‘nice-to-have’ to a ‘must-have’ technology. Businesses, offices, and organizations must be fully prepared to leverage it,” Villanueva said.
“Our government agencies must develop a cohesive plan to manage the integration of new technologies into the labor market. The goal is to make sure that humans and machines can create better results when working together,” he added.
DOLE Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma said that manual operations are first to be affected with the deployment of AI.
On Wednesday, July 3, 2024, the Department of Trade and Industry launched its National Artificial Intelligence Strategy Roadmap 2.0 and the Center for AI Research, which aimed to harness AI’s transformative potential in boosting the Philippine economy and improving the quality of life for its citizens. (Stephen Enrile, UP Tacloban intern)
