Negros lawmaker pushes AI regulation to protect workers

Ah, splendid — the Philippines has entered the AI regulation Olympics with a foam noodle and a brave smile. Negros Occidental 3rd District Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez has announced that lawmakers are drafting the proposed AI Development and Regulation Act, a grand piece of legislation that will, wait for it, 'promote innovation while protecting workers.' That phrase deserves a slow clap. It is the sort of bilingual balancing act that usually ends with either the innovation lobby taking everything or the workers being handed a leaflet.

Nowhere is the comedy richer than in the creative economy, the very sector whose output feeds the text-to-image and text-to-video mills that are now threatening to replace it. Benitez has noticed that the painters, coders and copywriters of Negros and beyond might be first against the wall, and so the bill promises protection. Lovely. Protection — after the training data has been hoovered up, after the models have learned to imitate every living artist, after the gig platforms have restructured around automation. It is the regulatory equivalent of arriving at a fire with a single glass of water and a lecture on the virtues of hydration.

To be fair, the man is a congressman, not an oracle, and drafting a bill is more than most western legislatures have managed. But the 'AI Development and Regulation Act' tells you everything: the word 'development' goes first, like a host introducing a guest they are trying to sell to the audience. Expect the 'risks' mentioned in the article — the ones the law is meant to 'address' — to be addressed with the urgency of a man filling a pothole in a hurricane. Meanwhile, the workers of the creative economy are advised to keep their portfolios updated and their clients grateful. At least somebody in the Philippines is bothering to wave a regulation-shaped lifeboat.