Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines director general Atty. Rowel Barba hopes that the Marcos Jr. administration will come up with a regulation concerning artificial intelligence (AI), as AI can affect the works and intellectual property of Filipino artists and the whole creative industry.

“We need this moment of reflection to ask the right questions like: What does it mean to be an artist in the time of AI? Would machines be able to create poems and songs that could move us deeply and touch our souls? Is it reasonable for an AI-generated art to command the same value in auctions as human-generated art?” said Barba in his speech during the opening of the 5-day, 2nd Philippine International Copyright Summit.

Guidelines

With this, Barba said they are crafting some guidelines that can be integrated with the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy Roadmap 2.0 and the Center for AI Research launched recently by the Department of Trade and Industry.

“So, we are hopeful that the Philippine government will be able to come up with an AI regulation,” he said.

IP importance

For her part, Trade Acting Secretary Cristina Aldeguer-Roque maintained that protecting IP, trademark, and copyright is very important and this is one of the most important parts of any business.

“I come from the business sector and these are often neglected especially by small and medium enterprises but they don’t know that this is very important for the business,” she said.

She said the Philippine Creative Industry Development Act and the Philippine Creative Industry Development Plan were crafted to keep the creative economy on an upward trajectory.

“However, all our creative endeavors will only prosper if we have a united front in supporting our artists and safeguarding the fruits of their labor,” she maintained.