Gesmundo: AI use should uphold people’s rights

Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo on Sunday has urged the country's legislators and policymakers to ensure that technology like artificial intelligence "will be beneficial to the people and will respect, protect, and uphold their rights."

In his keynote address at the Manila Social Good Summit 2023 last 16 September 2023 in Taguig City, the Chief Justice stressed that technology must be used for the benefit of the people to address longstanding problems like inequality and injustice.

"Even as we use its tools                              — more and more of them becoming indispensable in how we live and work — we have to be mindful. We have to make space to think of things like ethical considerations, social impacts, environmental consequences, even its impacts on our own selves and relationships with others," Gesmundo said.

He also highlighted the importance of sustaining dialogue among the government, the tech industry, advocates, and experts from different areas of discipline, civil society, and ordinary citizens.

"The future is still ours to forge; that it is our hands on the wheel; that whatever happens next is up to us," Gesmundo said.