When an eager Rotary Makati do-gooder on a project visit to a public school in a depressed area hands out a book along with a Jollibee meal in a rundown public high school classroom and asks the typical Juanito who has to trudge to school for hours with barely enough “baon” to fill his grumbling stomach if he would like to study AI, what do you think his response would be?

Probably a quizzical stare, an embarrassed smile at best, or a shrug to please — just give him the Jollibee. AI is likely farthest from Juanito’s mind, not being aware of the tremendous power AI can unleash for him.

What is AI?

In simple terms, it’s an artificial intelligence tool that enables computers to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence such as understanding language, recognizing images and sounds, learning from data and experience, solving problems and making decisions, and planning and reasoning. In short, it’s about machines that can think, learn and act intelligently.

All these functionalities are based on algorithms and data, without consciousness or emotions. It’s like a super robot that can mimic the brain of a genius and quickly outthink most of us to respond to any question or task within minutes, if not seconds, and is now an indispensable tool in this new digital age, a world of digitalization.

The Rotary Club of Makati, fully aware of the great divide in our society from countless social project visits all over the Philippines for the past six decades, launched last August under the leadership of RCM president Eddie Galvez and RCM AI Guru Roger Collantes the inaugural run of the AI Academy graced by no less than DICT Secretary Henry Aguda who promised full support.

The academy, which will seek TESDA accreditation to enable the certification of its graduates, is a fully equipped brand new RCM Foundation-owned facility in Guadalupe Viejo, a not-for-profit school dedicated to the upliftment of underprivileged youths through free education focusing on digital literacy, particularly AI. Funding for the program comes from RCM and some generous member benefactors.

The training program, whose objective is succinctly described by its theme — Educate, Empower and Employ — in collaboration with Kadakaree, runs for four months. It had as its first students 62 underprivileged youths from the Sisters of Mary of Banneux Boys and Girls Town, a Cavite-based community serving disadvantaged youth, and 10 from RCM’s Rotaractors, Rotary’s youth arm.

Every Saturday, the students were bused to RCM’s training facility for a gruelling five hours where they were trained and mentored by Kadakareer tutors and volunteer RCM members who are digital experts and owners of enterprises actively using AI.

The inaugural program curriculum commenced with the Educate phase, a briefing of the theories, basics, and ethics on the use of AI; followed by the Empower module which focused on developing AI-powered solutions to real life problems that were identified by the students in their communities; and will conclude with the Employ stage where the students will come face to face with possible employers, primarily RCM business owner-members who have fully signified their commitment to hire all graduates, initially on an OJT status with a view to fully integrating them later.

Last Saturday, I had the privilege, together with other volunteer RCM judges, of interviewing the trainees to choose which three best AI-powered projects in the Empower module stood out among all the projects that I thought were equally outstanding.

Without doubt, the clear, well thought-out, crafted AI solutions to everyday problems articulately explained were very impressive — from putting to good use plastic candy wrappers blowing on the campus grounds, to developing an AI-powered weather warning system for farmers, to an AI tutorial program for teachers advanced in age who are no longer able to cope with the fast-moving digital technology. Hats off to all the students!

Going forward, with the help of more benefactors beyond the world of Rotary, this type of social uplift program could very well be the beginning of what would be a solution to our society now struggling to overcome self-inflicted wounds — to a world that will erase the great divide between the privileged few and the multitude of have-nots with the power of AI.

Until next week… OBF!

For comments, email bing_matoto@yahoo.com.