Is Asia ready for… artificial intelligence?
South-east Asia takes the leap with AI
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Radiologist Jose Legarda, from The Medical City Hospital in the Philippines' capital, interpreting an AI-generated X-ray report.
PHOTO: THE MEDICAL CITY
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MANILA – At The Medical City (TMC) Hospital in the Philippine capital, radiologist Jose Legarda and his team are using an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to save lives.
In use since January, the Lunit Insight CXR helps the team identify critical cases like pneumothorax, or a collapsed lung, at a much faster rate, allowing doctors to begin treating their patients as soon as possible.
“Timing is very crucial in terms of management of diseases. And in this particular case, that is actually life-saving,” said Dr Legarda, 37. “So yes, it’s a real benefit with AI in the practice of radiology.”
He described the South Korea-made AI tool, which can detect 10 kinds of radiologic abnormalities in chest X-rays, as “another set of eyes”, as it also confirms the doctor’s diagnosis, which is based on years of practice.
“Sometimes, we second-guess ourselves, or we doubt ourselves. By having another set of eyes that is provided by AI, you’re able to see things you could have missed, or it’s also pointing to what I’m already seeing,” he said.
About half a century after cinemas showed how intelligent droids helped human rebel fighters blow up Darth Vader’s Death Star in a galaxy far, far away in the iconic film Star Wars, humans today are racing towards a future where AI will be part and parcel of everyday life.
South-east Asia is not far behind in the AI race. Countries in the region, such as the Philippines, have in recent years been integrating AI into key sectors like government, healthcare, agriculture, transport and finance.
AI-driven technologies such as automated chatbots have spared workers from repetitive tasks and processes, while generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney have allowed companies to churn out content at a faster rate but with reduced labour costs.
“AI is already out there, and we see some people really reaping the benefits by enhancing their practice and making AI their assistant or their co-pilot,” said Ms Michelle Alarcon, president of the Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Association of the Philippines (AAP), which is working with the government to harness the potential of AI.
South-east Asian governments have already taken initial steps in advancing AI, with Singapore leading the charge when it launched its National AI Strategy in 2019. Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam drafted their own national AI strategies and road maps between 2020 and 2022.
The region recognises the potential of AI to stimulate economic growth, drive innovation, enhance service delivery and improve customer experience. But the technology comes with challenges – from displacing workers to facilitating scams – that are potentially as huge as its advantages.
The need to balance the perks and challenges of AI has pushed Singapore, as rotating chair of the Asean Digital Ministers’ Meeting and Related Meetings in 2024, to collaborate with partners in the grouping to develop an Asean Guide on AI Governance and Ethics. While details are scant, it is understood that the grouping is looking into how the new technology can be deployed safely.
Responding to queries from The Straits Times, a spokesman for Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information said the guide will serve as a “practical and implementable step” towards supporting the safe deployment of “responsible and innovative AI” in the region.
SPH Media will be holding a two-day conference on the future of Asia on Oct 4 and Oct 5.
The by-invitation Asia Future Summit 2023 will bring together 300 delegates, thought leaders, policymakers and diplomats, and feature more than 20 speakers. They include Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, former prime minister of Australia John Howard, former United States ambassador to Singapore Jon Huntsman and Mr Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys.
The event at The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore, will also discuss the world views of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding prime minister who died in 2015 and who would have turned 100 this year.
OCBC is the presenting sponsor of the event.
Singapore at the forefront
A 2020 study by global management consulting firm Kearney said that while AI use is still in its nascent stage in South-east Asia, AI has the potential to contribute US$1 trillion (S$1.36 trillion) to the Asean economy by 2030.
The study cited Singapore as an example, noting how service sectors are predominant contributors to the Republic’s gross domestic product, and how it has a highly digitalised, automated and efficient economy that is well positioned to capture AI’s full potential.
The Singapore Government has started to use AI in its processes, in a bid to boost productivity and better benefit citizens.
About $500 million has been invested by the Singapore Government in the last five years
AI is also used in processing feedback from citizens and helps prepare Singapore for an ageing population by improving clinical diagnoses.
Thousands of civil servants are currently using a government chatbot based on ChatGPT that assists them with writing, research and coding.
Several initiatives have also been launched to nurture tech talent in the Republic. This includes the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s company-led training programme, which has trained and placed more than 2,600 individuals in AI and data analytics roles.
“Singapore stands out for its vision; it has a whole-of-government view on how AI is to be deployed across the society and has a high-level steering committee for this,” said Mr Jacob Hook, managing partner of management consulting firm Oliver Wyman.
Scratching the surface
Other South-east Asian countries have been tapping AI to boost productivity and efficiency in key sectors.
In Indonesia, the government used an AI-powered app called Telemedicine Indonesia to link patients with hospitals and doctors during the height of the Covid-19 crisis.
Hue, a city in central Vietnam, is now using an interactive platform called Hue-S where citizens can engage the authorities to provide real-time feedback.
The Vietnamese authorities also plan to deploy AI to identify and flag instances of tax evasion to reduce human error and increase tax compliance and government revenues.
In Thailand, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has started using AI to manage the infamously traffic-logged streets of the capital, where the tech is being used to estimate traffic volume, analyse bottlenecks and implement solutions. The software allows the administration to adjust traffic light timings to suit traffic volume and tap AI-fitted closed-circuit televisions to catch motorcyclists who ride on footpaths.
In Malaysia and the Philippines, AI use is primarily led by the private sector and research institutes.
The Lunit Insight CXR helps the team at The Medical City Hospital identifies critical cases like pneumothorax or a collapsed lung at a much faster rate, allowing doctors to begin treating their patients as soon as possible.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE MEDICAL CITY
Datuk Aminuddin Hassim, secretary-general of Malaysia’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, said the country uses AI for automatic optical inspection in manufacturing and oil palm automation and mechanisation in agriculture.
Senti AI, a pioneer in the use of the technology in the Philippines, offers companies natural language processing or NLP tech to help detect sentiments about their products on social media. Telecommunication companies like PLDT, Smart and Globe have been deploying conversational robots to call customers who have not paid their phone bills on time.
Start-ups are also reaping the benefits of AI to both grow their businesses and improve lives in their countries.
Indonesian agri-tech company Pitik, which works with farmers to use technology and increase their production, uses AI to detect potential issues in chicken coops and provide recommendations for increasing efficiency. Its technology currently helps farmers supply up to five million chickens across the archipelago each month.
In Thailand, agri-tech company Easy Rice has been using AI technology to inspect and verify the quality and variety of harvested rice in a bid to reduce the cost of human error and digitalise this checking process.
Using a modified computer scanner, users scan an image of a sample of rice and upload it onto Easy Rice’s system. Comparing the colour, shape and size of the kernels against the millions of data points in its system, Easy Rice is able to evaluate the variety and quality of the grain in less than five minutes.
A new start-up called 10XME Academy recently opened in the Philippines with the end-goal of training entrepreneurs, corporate employees and even students in how to use AI tools. Its inaugural class, which was held in August, was called How To Replace Your Marketing Agency with AI.
“In marketing, you need to choose sometimes: Do you want a lot of output, but the quality is just so-so, or do you want really great output, but you have to pay the premium for that? So with AI tools, you can have both now without having such an enormous price tag on it,” said 10XME founder Bianca Azurin.
“We’re really just scratching the surface.”
Managing the red flags
But fears over AI remain, with critics raising red flags over its potential to leave thousands of people jobless and the possibility of it being used for scams and electoral fraud.
Philippine veteran journalist and Nobel laureate Maria Ressa told The Straits Times in June that AI is exponentially magnifying the fear, anger and hate on social media
Ms Ressa said AI’s first iteration, seen in machine-learning programs, was meant to get users addicted to scrolling through social media and generate more money for platforms like Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter) from targeted advertisements and harvested data.
She said interested parties then harnessed social media algorithms to spread political propaganda, including lies meant to either benefit their patrons or attack critics.
She warned that the new generation of AI, like ChatGPT and Bard, would spread online disinformation much faster.
“It’s like open-sourcing the Manhattan Project,” said Ms Ressa, referring to the top-secret World War II programme in the United States that led to the development of the atomic bomb.
Policymakers in South-east Asia have started exploring the possibility of regulating AI applications.
Malaysia’s Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Chang Lih Kang said there is a need for a clear legal framework to regulate the possible abuse of AI in elections through slanderous content or misinformation.
“It is crucial to have strong legal frameworks and ethical guidelines for AI use. This could include laws that mandate transparency about the source of information and severe penalties for those who use AI tools to spread false information,” he said.
Teachers and school administrators in the Philippines have also called out students turning in essays generated by ChatGPT.
Copyright and intellectual property concerns have also been raised, particularly by artists whose works could just be plugged into image-generating AI tools by anyone.
10XME’s Ms Azurin said workers in industries like business process outsourcing would likely take a hit once repetitive tasks and outsourced work being done by call centre agents are impacted by AI tools in the near future.
But she also sees a silver lining: AI can help generate new jobs that people have yet to imagine. “Companies will start to develop their own AI to power their operations. That will form new jobs – workers prompting or inputting data for AI tools, or they do quality checks for the AI platforms,” Ms Azurin said.
While job displacement will be inevitable for some existing tasks, Mr Varun Arora, partner and digital lead for Asia Pacific at Kearney, is of the view that AI integration should be seen as a complement to workers’ efforts and decision-making capabilities.
Still, the key lies in reskilling and redeploying – or in other words, regenerating – talent, he said.
Ms Teo Peiru, chief executive of KeyReply, which builds AI-powered virtual assistants for enterprises, said companies integrating AI into their operations have a responsibility to retrain their workforce.
“From our experience, none of our clients has laid off jobs due to the implementation of AI. In fact, the focus is on using AI as a tool to help staff achieve their metrics and key performance indicators more efficiently,” she said.
For now, South-east Asian governments are encouraged by industry experts like Ms Alarcon of AAP to closely work with stakeholders as they explore the perks and perils of AI in the years to come.
Dr Legarda of TMC is looking forward to the future of AI, especially in medicine. He imagines a future where more advanced technology would help more doctors use precise data to improve their patients’ conditions in a faster, more cost-saving manner.
“By having AI, we can have more time focused on cases that need more of our attention,” Dr Legarda said.
Additional reporting by Hariz Baharudin, Zunaira Saieed and Tan Tam Mei
The Future is AI
Artificial intelligence, or AI for short, is increasingly used to automate complex tasks, improve decision-making processes and boost efficiency.
What is AI?
It is a technology that allows machines to imitate human intelligence so that they can perform tasks such as understanding language, recognising patterns and making decisions.
Programmers use algorithms and data to train the machines so they can learn from experience and improve over time. This process is known as machine learning.
A form of AI known as natural language processing (NLP) can translate text, analyse sentiment and recognise speech. It is the technology behind virtual assistants such as Siri, Alexa and chatbots.
Another form of AI – computer vision – can identify objects in an image or track movement in a video. It is used to guide self-driving cars and track wildlife for conservation.
Generative AI can produce original content, from music, poetry and art, to creating entire virtual worlds. ChatGPT is a form of generative AI.
Where is AI used?
Healthcare: Helps doctors make better and faster diagnoses, predict patient outcomes and develop treatment plans.
Education: Automates grading so teachers have more time for other tasks; helps teachers craft teaching materials.
Finance: Detects fraud, improves customer service and provides financial advice.
Transport: Powers self-driving cars, manages traffic, predicts flight delays and helps prevent maritime accidents.
The good
Greatly reduces human errors.
Automates repetitive tasks.
Handles large amounts of data smoothly.
The questionable
Voice recognition technology has led to proliferation of scams.
Algorithm bias, or the tendency of algorithms to reflect human biases, can lead to discrimination.
Potential to displace humans from their jobs.
Lack of transparency in how and why AI comes to its conclusions.
Use in surveillance poses risks to privacy and civil liberties.
Regulating AI to reduce risks of harm is necessary but challenging, as the rapid pace of changing technology makes it hard for regulations to keep up. Over-regulation could also stifle innovation. In 2022, 37 AI-related laws were passed globally.
• OCBC is the presenting sponsor for the Asia Future Summit 2023. The event is also supported by Guocoland and Kingsford Group.
