As lawyers, we are required to complete 36 hours of Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) every three years.
The MCLE program’s aim is to enhance the practice of law, ensure that all lawyers stay updated, and maintain ethical standards in our practice.
We are now on the 8th compliance period, covering April 15, 2022 to April 14, 2025.
The topics covered are cross-examination rules, arbitration, taxation, the new code of professional responsibility, corporation law, taxation, trial techniques, data privacy, and updates on new laws, rules, and regulations. Out of the 27 units, there is a 2-unit course which is Legal Writing, Best Practices, and AI (artificial intelligence). https://flexisynch.accessonline.ph/mcle-lecture-series-29/)
Two out of 27 units is not a lot, but it is a step in the right direction.
The legal practice in the Philippines has been traditional and conservative, and there are still many doubters on the effect and impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI). However, it is becoming clear that AI’s impact on the practice of law is a reality we can no longer ignore.
In the academe, schools are also still in the process of integrating new developments in computing, processing, machine learning, language models, and artificial intelligence in their curricula.
However, the unfortunate reality is that in the Philippines, we are behind in our preparations to adapt to this new and changing world.
Singapore has started a program to pay for higher education diplomas for Singaporeans aged 40 and above, so they can develop and adapt to a world with Artificial Intelligence.
Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced earlier this year in his 2024 Budget speech that starting May 2024, all Singaporeans aged 40 and above will receive a 4,000 Singaporean dollars (SGD$) top-up in SkillsFuture credits.
(https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/budget-2024-s4000-skillsfuture-topup-workers-2364101)
The subsidy provided by the Singaporean government is to encourage Singaporeans to prioritize education and to allow them to pursue another diploma in higher education. The world is changing at a rapid pace such that what one learns in school at 20 years old has already become obsolete by the time one turns 40 years old.
The courses cover a range of subjects and specialties such as Information and Communications, Engineering, Education and Training, and Healthcare.
The world has gone through three industrial revolutions, and we are currently in the 4th, which involves the fusion of digital, biological, and physical technologies. The key elements include artificial intelligence, the Internet of things, robotics, and biotechnology. It focuses on smart technologies and interconnected systems that enable automation and data exchange in manufacturing and other industries.
(https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/)
Singapore is not alone in preparing to adapt to prepare its citizens for this future.
Sovereign AI is happening now, where countries build their data centers running on the latest computer chips, mostly produced by NVIDIA, an American company set to surpass Microsoft as the world’s biggest company, to run generative AI software programs.
They feed the data centers their country’s data and allow the program to assist in research and development with the aim of generating solutions and more efficient processes for various fields such as, but not limited to, health care, agriculture, infrastructure, telecommunications, manufacturing, financial services, social welfare.
The United States, France, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, India, Singapore, Japan, and Vietnam are some countries that are investing heavily in building AI factories and data centers to process their country’s data and use this data for the good of their country and citizens.
Last April, Vietnamese tech company FPT Global announced a strategic partnership with Nvidia to build an AI factory in Vietnam for $200 million. This facility will consist of Nvidia’s latest graphic chips and is intended to be used for research and development, provide software and hardware cloud computing services, and solutions for businesses in automotive technology, manufacturing, finance, banking, and insurance, and help businesses automate operations.
It is also intended to bring Nvidia’s training into formal teaching at universities and high schools to develop high-tech human resources providing about 30,000 students access to the program within five years. (https://e27.co/fpt-nvidia-to-build-us200m-ai-factory-in-vietnam-20240423/)
While $200 million sounds like a huge sum of money, this is something the Philippines can afford. We have surely allocated more money from our National Budget for other things.
A Philippine AI factory and generative AI data center can assist in providing our government with more efficient ways to deploy its resources, such as where to build schools, how better to collect taxes and identify and close loopholes, manage traffic, where to build roads, bridges and infrastructure, what crops to plant for agriculture, when and what products to import and which to produce ourselves, how to use our resources to improve our tourism industry, the kinds of hospitals and medical equipment that is best suited for Filipinos, how to streamline government processes and bureaucracy, educational curriculum tailor-made for Filipino students, and yes, even which technology and weapons our country should develop or acquire for our national defense.
Our daily news feeds are filled with issues such as the ongoing saga of Mayor Alice Guo, the West Philippine Sea dispute with China, the divorce bill in Congress, moving back the school calendar to June/ July, earthquakes and floods, and text message alerts from Meralco on the state of our power supply. This is not to say that these issues are not important. However, we may do better if we were to focus more on how to improve our people’s skills and future.
In an interview with NVIDIA’s President, Jensen Huang, he mentions that his company is “Democratizing” technology as the cost of building and running a supercomputer keeps going down.
Our neighbors, and the world, are already building their AI infrastructure. Without this infrastructure, we allow other countries to store and use our data. When other countries have access to our data, we are at their mercy and we will continue to be pushed around and dictated by them. They will be able to sit on their high horse and tell the Filipinos what is best for them and what they have to do.
This is surely what some countries want, for the Philippines to be constantly reliant on them so that it can be used in their own geopolitical and economic game. Sadly, this has been going on for a long time.
Countries must wake up to the power of AI which will result in the production of intelligence. The Philippines can do this by owning its own production of intelligence. When we have our own infrastructure, we will own our own data, we will be able to refine it and use it for what is good for Filipinos. Then and only then, will we own our future.
(The author, Atty. John Philip C. Siao, is a practicing lawyer and founding Partner of Tiongco Siao Bello & Associates Law Offices, an Arbitrator of the Construction Industry Arbitration Commission of the Philippines, and teaches law at the De La Salle University Tañada-Diokno School of Law. He may be contacted at jcs@tiongcosiaobellolaw.com. The views expressed in this article belong to the author alone.)