DOST wants AI built for Filipinos, not Silicon Valley

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

ILOILO CITY – The Philippines should prioritize artificial intelligence (AI) solutions tailored to local challenges instead of competing with global technology giants, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Renato Solidum Jr. said Monday.

Speaking at the opening of the 2026 AI Fest here, Solidum said the country’s competitive advantage lies in building AI systems designed for Philippine conditions, where foreign technologies often fall short.

“We are not trying to out-build Silicon Valley. We are not competing head-to-head in developing massive frontier language models. That is not our race to win, and frankly, it doesn’t need to be,” he said.

“Our advantage lies elsewhere: in our people, our data, and our deep understanding of local problems that foreign models were never trained to solve,” he added.

Solidum said AI models developed overseas routinely fail to account for Philippine realities. He cited traffic systems that do not recognize jeepneys and tricycles.

He also pointed to weather models built for temperate climates, which are not optimized to forecast the tropical cyclones that regularly cross the country.

The DOST is instead directing its efforts toward technologies that address real-world Filipino problems and improve public services, he said.

“That is where we compete—and where we can lead. Progress isn’t about creating technologies that are nice to have; it is about building technologies we need to have. We are here to deliver real-world solutions to real-world Filipino problems,” he said.

Among the agency’s flagship initiatives is vBANT.AI, a vision-based traffic monitoring system trained specifically on Philippine roads and developed with the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.

Solidum also highlighted Project GABAY, which provides AI-powered neighborhood-level weather forecasts updated every 15 minutes. The system, developed by DOST-PAGASA and DOST-ASTI with the American AI meteorology firm Atmo Inc., produces forecasts at a resolution of about 2 kilometers with lead times of up to 14 days.

He said iTanong allows users to access government information through natural-language queries.

Other initiatives include Mus3o, which digitizes the country’s cultural and natural heritage, and DIMER, an AI-as-a-service platform for researchers and businesses.

He also cited PROPEL, which helps bring government-funded innovations from laboratories to the market.

Disaster resilience has likewise benefited from AI-enabled platforms such as GeoRiskPH, HazardHunterPH, and PlanSmart, Solidum said.

These initiatives support the government’s broader National AI Strategy for the Philippines, or NAIS-PH, and the National Artificial Intelligence Center for Research and Innovation, which serves as the country’s hub for AI research, computing infrastructure, talent development, and governance.

NAICRI was launched on Feb. 26, 2026, at a ceremony in Manila and is anchored at DOST-ASTI. The DOST established it to consolidate AI research, computing infrastructure, and capacity-building efforts that had previously been scattered across separate projects and funding cycles.

NAIS-PH, which runs through 2028, aims to accelerate AI adoption across key sectors while promoting responsible and ethical use of the technology to improve public services, strengthen industry competitiveness, and support inclusive economic growth.

The strategy responds to a persistent gap in adoption. Solidum has said that while more than 80 percent of Philippine establishments have basic digital infrastructure, only about 15 percent have taken up advanced AI tools, with uptake concentrated among larger firms in urban centers.

Solidum acknowledged that the country continues to face challenges, including limited high-performance computing capacity, a shortage of specialized AI talent, regional disparities in technology adoption, and governance frameworks that are still catching up with rapid technological advances.

“Left unaddressed, these gaps hold us back. But addressed strategically, these very gaps become the foundation of our next phase of national development,” he said.

Despite the rapid pace of AI development worldwide, Solidum said the Philippines remains committed to ensuring that AI serves people first.

“The Philippines has chosen a clear, deliberate path: A human-centered approach to Artificial Intelligence. Not AI for its own sake, but AI in true service of the Filipino,” he said.

Solidum cited Western Visayas as a model for regional AI development, saying Regional Development Council VI was the first in the country to adopt both an AI action plan and an AI governance and ethics policy.

RDC VI launched the Western Visayas AI Regional Development Action Plan 2025-2030 in February 2025, organized around nine focus areas ranging from talent development to startup growth. The council formally launched the companion Western Visayas AI Governance and Ethics Policy 2025-2030 in Malay, Aklan, in March 2026.

He said the region has established five high-performance computing facilities to strengthen AI research, innovation, and regional capacity-building.

The facilities are hosted by Iloilo Science and Technology University, West Visayas State University, Northern Iloilo State University, Aklan State University, and DOST Western Visayas.