[1] Address delivered by retired Chief Justice ARTEMIO V. PANGANIBAN during the Conference and Exhibits on the theme, “Philippine Constitutions and the Social Order: Counting Blessings, Rising Above Challenges” held at the National Museum of Fine Arts on January 16-18, 2024, sponsored by the 1971-72 Constitutional Convention Surviving Delegates, National Historical Commission of the Philippines, National Museum of the Philippines.
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Good morning!
I will start my talk with an admission against interest. I do not feel qualified to discuss the topic assigned to me, “The Philippine Constitution and the Running Bulls of Technology: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Genetic Engineering, Nanotechnology and Information”. It is difficult and complex, yet challenging and nascent.
[Click: Slide 2. Moses and the Ten Commandments]
And speaking of admissions against interest, may I tell you that scheming lawyers and less than faithful husbands have added three more commandments to the Ten. The 11th is: “Thou shall not get caught.” The 12th is: “If caught, “thou shall deny, deny, deny, even when caught in flagrante.” And the lucky 13th is: “When all else fail, thou shall ask for a fair trial and invoke the constitutional right against self-incrimination and the constitutional right to remain silent.”
[Click: Slide 3. THE FACTS]
The Facts:
Ladies and gentlemen, my talk is neither about giving definitions nor a profound and comprehensive discussion of these very technical terms assigned to me. I am not a tech expert after all, and I really, really wonder why I had been invited to deliver this address in the first place. Worse, I was directed to talk for 30 minutes! So be ready to be penalized.
Honored guests and friends, I AM NOT A ROBOT. My brain has not absorbed the wealth and breadth of all the information on the internet and the metaverse, but as in the many events in my life, I prayed for discernment. And if it be God’s will that I take on this challenge of speaking before you on this topic, I pray that I may proclaim His message with all humility and faith.
With that caveat, I will share with you my ruminations and what keeps me awake at night — my aspirations regarding AI and the recent technological advancements that are rapidly affecting our society, our communities, our families – and the very core of our existence – our humanity.
The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines (which has now, for the nth time, become the center of debate and discussion for a revision or amendment) was approved by the 1986 Constitutional Commission on October 12, 1986. It was presented to the new President, Corazon C. Aquino, on October 15, 1986, was overwhelmingly ratified on February 2, 1987 by a plebiscite, and was proclaimed to be in full force and effect on February 11, 1987 amid a hopeful Filipino nation.
[Click: Slide 4. Artificial Intelligence Timeline]
Around the world, this was a time when the Artificial Intelligence Industry (or AI industry) was in a period described as the “AI Winter.” Started in the 1970s, this “AI Winter” was characterized by the dramatic decline of commercial and scientific activities on AI. It was a time when the US government decided to pull back on AI research, triggered by that government’s Automatic Language Processing Advisory Committee report in 1966 and the Lighthill report for the British government in 1973. [Click: Slide 5. The Hype Cycle and AI Winter] During that period – for around two decades, 1973 to 1993 – there was a trough of disillusionment probably caused by the lack of genuine understanding of the inner workings and deficiencies of AI algorithms, and of AI in general.
Painted in this context, we can imagine how easily our Constitution, and that of many countries, may not have been able to anticipate and forsee the advancements of today’s technology.
[Click: Slide 6. ILOVEYOUs trail of destruction] To illustrate this point, please recall that in the year 2000, 13 years after the coming into force of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, two young Filipino programmers created the so-called “ILOVEYOU” worm or virus that unwittingly launched a script that damaged computers and affected 10 percent of internet users in 2000. This was known to be one of the greatest computer infections of all time, afflicting over 50 million computers and causing at least five billion dollars in damages. The case against the young programmers was dismissed, not for a lack of proof, but for the lack of an appropriate law to charge them with. The Philippines, like several countries at the turn of the millennium, had not legislated against malware creation and other computer crimes.
Despite the realization that our Constitution and laws need to evolve to keep pace with technology, and that social realities today are far different from the 1980s, we are not alone.
It is interesting to note that in the United Kingdom, the Justice and Home Affairs Committee of the House of Lords acknowledged the following points in its March 30, 2022 Report on “Technology Rules? The Advent of New Technologies in the Justice System.”
- [They] uncovered a landscape, a new Wild West, in which new technologies are developing at a pace that public awareness and legislation have not kept up with.
- [They] began [their] work on the understanding that Artificial Intelligence (AI), used correctly, has the potential to improve people’s lives through greater efficiency, improved productivity. and in finding solutions to often complex problems.
- But while acknowledging the many benefits, [they] were taken aback by the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence tools potentially being used without proper oversight, particularly by police forces across the country.
- When deployed within the justice system, AI technologies have serious implications on human rights and civil liberties.
Now, the burning question is: “At what point can someone be imprisoned on the basis of a technology that could not be explained?”
In response, the UK government admitted: “As announced in the National AI Strategy, the UK Government is still currently undertaking a review of the AI governance landscape. This review will look at current regulation and legislation, regulator expertise and capacity and the institutional landscape including standards and assurance bodies, to ensure the regulatory regime facilitates innovation while protecting people and UK’s fundamental values.”
I repeat, we are not alone when our laws and our Constitution lag on technology. [Click: Slide 7. AI Legal Frameworks in Different Jurisdictions] True, other jurisdictions like in the US, China, Singapore, and the UK have recently enacted laws and/or codified standards, principles and frameworks; however, their goals are different, their application of these issuances diverse, and the pace with which their goals are to be achieved vary [Click: Slide 8. Continued…AI Legal Frameworks in Different Jurisdictions] as also shown in the next slide.
The Issue: [Click: Slide 9. The Issue]
I cannot agree more with the Conference-Exhibit Brief given to me by the organizers of this convocation that the breakthroughs in information technology, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology in the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world (or the so-called VUCA era) challenge us to fully understand, moderate, and embrace its intricacies.
The following are examples of the challenges that confront us:
First, in vitro fertilization technology requires an in-depth study of how the use of technology betters a couple’s home, yet impacts family structures, marriages, and child-parent relationships. [Click: Slide 10. Pope news report] In an annual speech to ambassadors on January 8, 2024, Pope Francis called surrogate motherhood a “despicable” practice that should be universally banned for its “commercialization” of pregnancy. Verily, he included the practice among wars, terrorism and other threats to peace and humanity.
Second, while nanotechnology offers the potential for new and faster kinds of computers, more efficient power sources and life-saving medical treatments, its potential disadvantages include economic disruption and possible threats to security, privacy, health, and the environment.
[Click: Slide 11. Israeli Drone news report] Third, these faster computing machines also produce cruise missiles and remotely-piloted drones for which humans still make all the targeting decisions. As reported by Lebanon’s state news agency, Saleh al-Arouri, a deputy political leader of Hamas, had been killed by a drone attack in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh. And still, there are emerging autonomous weapons which are expected to be, if not yet being, deployed, that select and engage targets without human intervention.
Fourth, cyber risks and AI errors, and autonomous weapons in the hands of terrorists, or dictators wishing to control their people, or warlords wishing to perpetrate ethnic cleansing – these are what bother me and keep me awake at night.
[Click: Slide 12. Social connection] It bothers me that at this time and age of “advanced communication,” when MS Teams or Zoom meetings are accessible everywhere, research shows that in recent years, about one in two adults in America reported experiencing loneliness. And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic cut off so many of us from friends, loved ones, and support systems, thereby exacerbating loneliness and isolation in an age of high technology and unprecedented screen time, How ironic!
Fifth, the use of social media by minors has significantly increased and has been linked to depression and suicidality. Simultaneously, age-adjusted suicide rates have steadily increased over the past decade in the United States, with suicide being the second most common cause of death among the young. Hence, the plausible conclusion is that the increase in suicide rate parallels the simultaneous increase in social media use. This confirms the interesting fact, as noted in the Conference-Exhibit Brief given me, that tragically, more people die from suicides than from the combined violence perpetrated by soldiers, terrorists, and criminals!
[Click: Slide 13. Saligang Batas ad] Sixth, closer to home, you might have seen the recent political ad saying, “Saligang Batas Gawing Saligang Patas.” In just only a few days since its posting, the X post had already garnered about 1 million views and counting.
Whether the claims of the ad are true or false, there is such a thing as, the illusory truth effect – also known as the illusion of truth – which, according to the DecisionLab.Com, states how, when we hear the same information, albeit false, repeated again and again, we often come to believe it to be true. Troublingly, this happens even when people should know better; that is, when people initially know that the information is false.
Admittedly, there are constitutional provisions that may, in principle, need deeper review, in light of today’s circumstances and our people’s experiences.
An example is the 100% requirement in the ownership and management of mass media, given that foreign networks, like CNN and BBC, are already being broadcasted and are widely available in the Philippines.
Related to this is the reality that today’s younger generation relies on social media for news and information – and many of these social media platforms are owned by foreigners or foreign companies. The internet is a breeding ground for rumors, false information, conspiracy theories, and outright lies. Our media ecosystem is so awash in falsehoods. This alone puts us at risk of the illusory truth effect and makes it imperative for us NOT to let foreign media control the truth!
Seventh, AI, digitization, nanotechnology and the other running bulls of technology are making the world smaller and smaller in an ever increasing pace, such that we need to reexamine constitutional provisions and laws that drive away friendly foreigners and foreign investments that in the final analysis may be disadvantageous to our people and isolate them unduly from the world.
[Click: Slide 14. Right Time Quote] In all these developments, may I pose this reminder: there is always a right time to do the right thing, by the right people and for the right reasons.
[Click: Slide 15. The Ruling] The Ruling
Why am I discussing all these? As I have said earlier, I am not here to answer all the mysteries of AI. I am here with just a simple goal – to share with you my ruminations and my aspirations.
Sometimes, it bothers me to know that AI and other technological advances pose significant risks, including in the domains of daily life. In the 2023 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary, US Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. acknowledged that some may wonder whether judges are about to become obsolete. He is sure that the answer is NO – but he is “equally confident that technological changes will continue to transform the judiciary’s work. For example, while in criminal cases, the use of AI in assessing flight risk recidivism and other discretionary decisions that involve predictions have generated concerns about due process, reliability and potential bias, and a public perception of the human-AI fairness gap, many AI applications indisputably assist the judicial system in advancing the goals of just, speedy, and inexpensive resolution of cases.” CJ Roberts is sure that machines cannot fully replace the key actors in the court rooms. Human judges will be around for a while. [Click: Slide 16. US CJ quote] Indeed, any use of AI requires caution and humility.
To quote my column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on September 25, 2023, “Though constitutions, statutes and regulations can easily be inputted and speedily applied to AI to a given set of facts, humane justice can be dispensed with ONLY BY JUDGES, not always by an automated formula. For example, our Penal Code gives judges a range of penalties to select from, and the Civil Code grants them the liberality to make “right and justice” prevail. Verily, judges are conferred wide discretion, not available to tech bots, to attain a just and humame society where liberty is safeguarded, and prosperity is nurtured under the rule of law.”
To stress, “The Running Bulls of Technology” are here to stay. They are inevitable, with all their benefits, risks, and opportunities. [Click: Slide 17. Phil SC’s SPJI] It is therefore with respect and admiration that I acclaim Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo’s determination “to turn tech for good and move from problem to solution” with the launching of the Supreme Court’s Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations, 2022-2027.
As the foundation of our national sovereignty, the 1987 Constitution embodies the will of the Sovereign Filipino people “to build a just and humane society, and establish a Government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace…”
It reassures and reminds us that the state values the dignity of every human person and guarantees full respect for human rights – especially the poor, the oppressed, the dispossessed, the weak, the disabled and the marginalized. With technological advancements, do we remain patiently optimistic and hopeful? YES, we should be!
[Click: Slide 18. AI Safety Summit] In the AI Safety Summit held last November 1 and 2, 2023 in Bletchley Park in the UK, 29 international organizations and governments, including the Philippines, joined in declaring the international community’s efforts to cooperate on AI to, among others, protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, and to foster public trust and confidence in AI systems to fully realise their potential.
[Click: Slide 19. Dr. Max Tegmark quote] Proceeding to the Philippines after his publicized participation in the said AI Safety Summit, Dr. Max Tegmark, a professor and researcher at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology and President of the Future of Life Institute said in his talk on AI during PLDT’s Annual Corporate Governance Enhancement Session on November 9, 2023 at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel, “The big reason why people are nervous about artificial general intelligence is because we really don’t have a good plan on how to make it safe or how to control it. But if we can understand these systems better, which I think we can, we will be able to cooperate in developing policies on AI across borders.”
Eight years ago, robots could barely stand and walk. [Click: Slide 20. Robot Video 1] According to Mr. Yoshua Bengio, the winner of the 2018 A.M. Turing Award, the “Nobel Prize of Computing,” today -interestingly and amazingly – we have robots that can play better than humans at many games, can dialogue with us, and can pass the Turing Test – that is – they can pass for a human in interacting with us. At this point, I invite you to stand up and dance with me, and prove once and for all that we can do better than robots, at least – in one area – in dancing! ([Click: Slide 21. Robot Video 2)
[Click: Slide 22. Conclusion, computer] Indeed, with breathless predictions about the future of AI, let us not forget that there is a Human Mind. There is a Human Heart. As stewards and guardians of the laws and policies in our own little spheres of influence and responsibilities, I am more than confident that much can be done to protect the will of the Sovereign Filipino people as enshrined in our Constitution. Let us remain vigilant, have a particularly strong responsibility for ensuring the safety of these technologies – for all future generations and for HUMANITY!
[Click: Slide 23] Thank you.
The Personal Website of Retired Chief Justice Panganiban 