BSP hikes AI utilization to further enhance data-gathering capacity

By: PhilippineNewsAgency
Source: philippinenewsagency

BAGUIO CITY – Artificial intelligence (AI) has been helping the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for around six years already and will continue as the central bank bids to further enhance its data-gathering capacity.

BSP-Department of Economic Statistics senior director Redentor Paolo Alegre Jr. on Saturday said AI helped when the pandemic hit and data gathering was hampered by movement restrictions.

He said the budget for utilization of AI, which simulates human intelligence using machines, has increased but declined to give any figures.

“Only when the eco restarted to reopen that we started to really invest in AI. More budget has been allocated,” he said during a seminar hosted by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines here.

He added that the budget allocation for AI usage is “commensurate to the work we do in gathering information on the economy.”

Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation chief economist Michael Ricafort, in an e-mail reply to the Philippine News Agency on Sunday, said “the use of AI, provided the most credible ones and with the greatest integrity, would help boost productivity by harnessing technology responsibly.”

“The best technologies evolved worldwide that could be harnessed to further improve efficiency and productivity, compared to more manual processes and previous technologies,” he said.

While questions remain on the veracity information gathered through and provided by AI, he said it is “better with some forms of checks and balances to ensure the highest form of quality and integrity of data/information, while also providing the necessary citations/acknowledgment of the sources.”

“This is part of further digitization of processes, thereby saving time, costs, and with better reliability and quality of calculations or information, based on acceptable and well-established standards by global banks as may also be prescribed by international banking regulators,” he added. (PNA)