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PHL needs an army of data scientists, experts say


In the past, Artificial Intelligence (AI) used to be a ‘futuristic invention’ trapped within the confines of a TV screen. Today, AI has become a tangible reality—and the Philippines is no stranger to this robotic revolution. 

On June 1, the first national symposium on AI was held at Makati Diamond Residences. The symposium, with the theme “Moving Forward: Breakthroughs and Opportunities”, focused on data science as a catalyst for AI in the Philippines.

The DOST-PCIEERD event was attended by data scientists, start-up entrepreneurs, DOST scholars, AI enthusiasts, and professors in the academe. 

‘Communicate and collaborate’

A session with the title, “Industry 4.0: Innovation, Research Trends and the Future,” featured local and international data scientists who talked about their experiences.

One of the speakers was Dr. Erika Fille Legara, a Filipina scientist based in Singapore who is particularly interested in complex systems.

A few applications of Legara’s work in Singapore include: a traffic and transport simulation tool, a port system based on multi-objective optimization; and a water quality and distribution project with Manila Water Asia Pacific.

Legara describes her work as an iterative process. “You don’t have to learn urban planning. Data scientists just have to know how to communicate and collaborate,” she said.

Asked about how data scientists can make it big in the Philippines, Legara says that they should work with industries, and target ‘low-hanging fruits’. “If you solve the easy [data sets], we can show others that it works. If you just keep talking about big data, it's tough to convince people to invest in it.”

Dr. David Hall, the Chief of Party from the USAID Science, Technology, Research and Innovation for Development (USAID-STRIDE) agrees with Legara.

“Sometimes, small and medium enterprises feel that data science is a very expensive investment,” Hall says, noting the lack of data scientists in the Philippines.

Hall then cited the BMW Corporation, for opening its doors to data science. After a few years, BMW was able to shortcut its ‘spiral of evolution’.

“If you leave things to develop, things will develop naturally. But if you leave things like that, there will be tiny incremental improvements,” he said, referring to enterprises that are not open to innovation. 

‘The one with the most data wins’

“Building your own model is easy,” Dr. Jin Kim quipped. “You just need sufficient computing power and sufficient data sets."

Kim is the Chief Data Science officer of Wave Computing. He is also a data scientist at Snap, Inc.

Kim talked about the importance of deep learning, over machine learning. Both are subsets of AI; with the former being the catalyst for AI boom.

“The only problem with deep learning is that it is very expensive, as it takes a long time to build,” Kim said. However impractical it may be, systems ingrained with deep learning proved to be successful.

Kim proves this point by showing a video about Google Translate in Action. Words in different languages were raised on placards in front of a laptop with the Google Translate software. In a few milliseconds, the words were interpreted into their corresponding meanings, in one uniform language.

“The one with the most data wins, “Kim says, referring to the stiff competition for big data. “Philippine companies are mostly horizontal-oriented. They have a lot of conglomerates and consumer assets as well. They just have to connect the assets with data.”

Asked about whether the future of AI involves scenes akin to Daniel Wilson’s Robopocalypse, Kim says that he doesn’t see it in the near future. “What AI cannot do is deep learning. It also cannot do creative thinking. Evil AI is just a perception.”

‘Ramping up’

Dir. Carlos Primo David, the Executive Director of PCCIERD (Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology, Research and Development), says that the Philippines is at the beginning of the AI revolution.

“AI and data science research is ramping up. We're at that stage where everybody knows that such technology would be important in all industries,” David says.

According to David, AI is deeply embedded into the daily lives of Filipinos. A couple of examples of this are navigation apps and personal assistants.

Like many developmental programs, adapting the AI revolution is no overnight process. “But we have to act right away. We need an army of data scientists and AI experts.”

All the speakers' talks underscored a very important point: the Philippines is in need of a talented pool of data scientists. Through training programs, scholarships and symposiums, David believes that AI will soon have a big impact on the regular Filipino. — TJD, GMA News

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