ANC Business Roadshow: Future-Proofing Careers with AI Education

Web3 Metaversity co-lead Bianca Cruz recently joined ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) anchor Denice Dinsay on the Business Roadshow to discuss YGG Pilipinas’ AI education initiatives.

Recently, YGG Pilipinas Web3 Metaversity co-lead and AI education platform 10XME co-founder Bianca Cruz joined ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) reporter Denice Dinsay on the Business Roadshow to discuss the new tech curriculums being developed by by YGG’s regional guild partner in the Philippines. The Business Roadshow is a daily news segment focused on rising trends within the Filipino business sector featured on ANC, one of the Philippines’ most trusted sources of original reporting.

During Season 6 of the Guild Advancement Program (GAP), YGG introduced AI bounty quests in collaboration with its new ecosystem partners, Sapien, Navigate and FrodoBots. The quests enabled the YGG community to contribute to training various AI models and experience how web3 technologies are being used to gamify AI data labeling and incentivize participants. In line with this, YGG Pilipinas’ education hub Web3 Metaversity has also added AI into its core curriculum. Following 10XME’s acquisition by YGG Pilipinas in August 2024, Bianca is now spearheading the creation of these educational resources to supplement Web3 Metaversity’s offerings.

With the global AI market reaching almost US$197 billion in 2023, YGG Pilipinas’ Web3 Metaversity program aims to equip Filipinos with the skills and knowledge needed to ensure they thrive with these shifts in technology. AI and web3 skills could enable workers to bring billions of pesos to the Philippine economy, similar to how BPOs have created approximately US$30 billion in revenue in the last two decades.

The following is an excerpt from the ANC Roadshow episode, where Bianca speaks about the importance of YGG entering the sector and explains how providing education and assisting Filipinos to identify new income-earning opportunities in AI can help to address concerns surrounding the potential impact of this emerging technology on the jobs market.

Listen to the full recording on YouTube.

ANC Business Roadshow: Expanding AI Education in PH

Denice (34:36): How do you see the intersection of AI and web3 evolving in the Philippines? Since, right now, the conversation is usually separate. “Tell us more about AI. Tell us more about web3. What are the programs specifically for each?” But now, everything is morphing into one. How do you see that evolving in the country, and what role do you think this new partnership and collaboration with YGG could help the growth and acceptance of Filipinos towards this kind of shift?

Bianca (35:06): So a big concern around big tech owning a lot of these AI solutions and generative AI tools that we use today is the lack of transparency. Fun fact, Meta’s open-source AI model Llama is actually trained partially on our Facebook and Instagram posts. A lot of us don't know that. When we signed up for Facebook, that's something that wasn’t made aware to us.

Because of all of these new technologies, like blockchain, people can build AI on the blockchain and be more transparent, and at the same time, they can get more contributors to opt in, provide their data, and in the process, earn from it or benefit from it.

There are a lot of opportunities for Filipinos to take on some of those kinds of work where they provide their own data or they do data labeling tasks. It's not a full-time job, but it can augment some of their income. It's a starting point for a new wave of freelancing opportunities.

Denice (36:20): A lot of people are saying, especially Filipinos, that AI is a double-edged sword. In terms of job creation and displacement, there's always that fear, but also that excitement. How do 10xME and YGG Pilipinas address concerns about AI potentially displacing human jobs?

Bianca (36:43): Outside of web3 games, we're already seeing the impacts of AI in our BPO industry. There is a lot of fear that the biggest driver of our economy will be shaken up because of AI. The IBPAP ( Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines) and the BPO players here are already taking their own steps into upskilling their talent. They recognize that, and they're doing something about that. For us as well, it's the same thing. It's upskilling people. 

I have to say that there will be job displacement that will happen overall, but the studies show, like with any other emerging tech, there will be more opportunities that will arise from these new technologies. And you can see that in the age of social media — who would have ever thought that you could be a full-time content creator on TikTok? And it would be just as amazing of a career path than all the career paths that were present before.

That's something that we're looking forward to. Definitely something to acknowledge, but at the same time, we don't want to stop with the fear. We are doing something about it. The way to equip yourself is to learn, be curious, get your feet wet, and just do something about it.

You can listen to the full recording on YouTube.

Follow Bianca for the latest news on Web3 Metaversity’s educational offerings and what the program has in store for the YGG Play Summit (YPS) in Manila this coming November. Keep an eye on the official YPS website for the lineup of events and participants.

Follow Denice for the latest updates on the Philippine business landscape, current events, and more.

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