By Priam Nepomuceno
MANILA – The Department of National Defense (DND) strongly supports the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) for the nation’s security, and reiterated its commitment to beef up cyber resilience and preserve human judgment grounded in expertise and personal discernment.
DND Senior Undersecretary Irineo Espino, in a DND statement Friday, said it is no longer a question on whether AI will affect national defense since it already does.
“The more important question is how deliberately we will shape its adoption within our institutions. Our direction should therefore be clear: build decision advantage, preserve human judgment, strengthen cyber resilience, ensure responsible adoption, and keep technology firmly aligned with the mission and the national interest,” Espino said during the 2nd Senior Leaders Cyber Awareness Program at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City on Thursday.
Espino cited the need to prepare the DND to harness the opportunities presented by AI while ensuring that its development and application remain guided by sound governance, ethical standards and the national interest.
The event, attended by senior officials from the DND Proper and cybersecurity practitioners from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), was anchored on the theme “Artificial Intelligence for National Defense: Strategic Leadership, Decision Advantage, and Emerging Technologies.”
It served as a platform to deepen the participants’ understanding of AI’s evolving role in defense planning, national security, intelligence and public service while promoting the responsible and ethical adoption of emerging technologies across the defense sector.
Among the speakers are experts from the Department of Science and Technology–Advanced Science and Technology Institute, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency and the Philippine Space Agency, who highlighted the applications of AI in national development, intelligence collection and analysis, decision advantage, cybersecurity, geospatial intelligence and other emerging technologies relevant to national defense. (PNA)
