The founder of the Internet Society of the Philippines (ISOC) said concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) can potentially replace some Filipino workers are rooted in truth.

However, it also noted that the threat is not imminent and will only affect people in certain jobs.

In an interview on Wednesday, Winthrop Yu, founder and former chairman of ISOC, said apprehensions of an AI takeover of the workforce are exaggerated and borne out of an inadequate understanding of technology.

“Yes, it (AI) is coming along but we are still a long way from that (replacement of human workers). There is no need to panic,” he noted.

Yu said while AI development has seen significant inroads in the past decade, there are still major technical hurdles to making it a suitable replacement for people in the performance of certain jobs.

“The more creativity your job requires, the more nuanced your task is, the safer you are from being replaced. Do not take what you see in science fiction movies too seriously,” he said.

AI has been successfully applied in the writing of legal briefs and even news articles but Yu pointed out that the quality of the AI’s output is more akin “to an essay written by a grade school student.”

He said AI will steadily improve with time, and can eventually supplant many employees performing simple, repetitive jobs.

“Historically, when certain jobs are made obsolete by technology, new jobs are created to take their place. Although this may be of little consolation to those who will be affected, people will just have to upgrade their skills,” he said.

The Internet Society is a nonprofit advocacy organization based in Virginia, whose goal is “to promote the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world.”

Meanwhile, Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) president Sergio Ortiz-Luis, Jr. told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) that the loss of jobs because of automation is nothing new.

He said even before the rise of AI, simple machines were already being used to replace people.

Ortiz-Luis said this reality should serve as an impetus to preserving existing jobs by avoiding policies that place too much financial burden on entrepreneurs.

“The government and the private sector must really find ways to create new jobs. If there are jobs to be lost, we must create new ones. People must concentrate on learning new skills to protect their place in the labor force,” he said. (PNA)