00:44.6
Investors also bracing for the European Central Bank's policy decision.
00:48.5
While the ECB is expected to keep its key rates unchanged,
00:52.5
traders will be looking for signals for a downturn.
00:57.1
As for Wall Street, futures are also pointing to a lower open for the major U.S. indices
01:01.7
ahead of another key inflation report, the Producer Price Index.
01:08.2
Here are some stocks to watch out for.
01:10.2
We're monitoring shares of Societe General after it agreed to sell its equipment financing unit
01:15.4
to French rival BPCE for over $1 billion.
01:19.9
The French bank shares rose 0.8%.
01:25.1
AstraZeneca, which plans to raise its annual dividend by 7% for 2024
01:30.3
ahead of a shareholder vote on its CEO's pay package.
01:34.8
Shares of the drug maker last traded higher by 2%.
01:37.9
We're also keeping a close watch on shares of U.S. Steel.
01:41.6
Politico reported the U.S. Justice Department has opened an antitrust investigation
01:46.6
into Nippon Steel's takeover of U.S. Steel.
01:50.3
Shares of the steel producer fell 0.6% before the bell.
01:55.1
Meanwhile in Asia, markets ended Thursday trade mostly lower.
01:59.3
Japan's Nikkei 225 shed a third of a percent,
02:02.7
while Australia's ASX 200 snapped a three-day winning streak.
02:07.9
Here at home, Philippine shares resumed their slide as they returned to trade from a two-day holiday.
02:13.1
The main index stumbled back to the 6600 level, now down for a six-trade session.
02:21.5
Don't panic. I think we're still good.
02:25.1
So far, the technicals are holding up, the fundamentals are holding up.
02:30.0
This is likely just a knee-jerk reaction.
02:32.7
Again, it's quite overdone in my opinion.
02:35.6
So I'm still a buy-on-dips kind of guy.
02:38.8
I think this is the dip that we're talking about.
02:41.0
So just a bit more cautious trading, but still be optimistic for the rest of the year.
02:50.4
The Asian Development Bank keeps a positive outlook on the Philippines'
02:55.1
economic growth despite projecting slower expansion this year.
02:59.5
Lady Vicentia with the full story.
03:03.0
In its latest Asian Development Outlook,
03:06.1
the Asian Development Bank sees the Philippine economy expanding by 6% this year.
03:11.8
While this is higher than the gross domestic product output in 2023,
03:16.1
the forecast is slightly lower than ADB's 6.2% projection last December,
03:21.3
as risks to inflation remain on the upside.
03:25.1
In 2025, growth forecast for the Philippines is at 6.2%.
03:30.1
Slightly downgrade of the outlook is basically the upside risk to inflation.
03:42.2
Mainly how the extreme weather events affect agricultural production,
03:48.2
the food prices that can affect the inflation.
03:55.1
In the Philippines.
03:56.6
Inflation pressures include higher shipping costs of imported commodities,
04:00.7
which is seen to affect food prices.
04:02.7
For 2024, ADB forecasts inflation easing to 3.8%,
04:08.2
which is within the government's target range.
04:11.2
The report cited the extension of lower tariffs on rice, corn and pork
04:15.5
as a critical measure in taming inflation.
04:18.8
Despite the growth projection downgrade,
04:21.1
ADB expects the Philippines to be among the fastest-growing economies
04:26.6
Developing Asia is seen to expand by 4.9% this year.
04:31.2
Philippines has been resilient, notwithstanding all of this.
04:34.0
So as I mentioned, we do think that it's a front-runner still in the region.
04:38.9
Growth has remained robust, driven by domestic demand, consumption and investment,
04:46.7
as well as I think services sectors continue to be very resilient.
04:50.1
As inflation moderates, the ADB expects monetary easing
04:54.0
to pave the way for investments and for consumption to pick up.
04:57.9
Attracting foreign investments and private sector participation
05:01.0
will be a key engine of growth, according to Ramachandran,
05:05.1
as he urged the government to sustain infrastructure spending
05:08.2
and improve implementation of ease of doing business.
05:12.1
Philippines still lags behind its neighbors as an investment destination.
05:15.9
Infrastructure and logistics gaps, I think, continue to hinder the manufacturing sector,
05:21.9
but also a deterrent to bringing in investors.
05:24.0
He added that reducing market barriers and improving access to finance
05:29.6
for small-medium enterprises could be key actors in driving growth.
05:34.3
For sustainable growth, the report also recommended that the Philippine government
05:38.1
invest in human capital and social sectors and push for an inclusive financial system
05:43.8
by giving access to pension funds and providing more insurance penetration.
05:48.7
Lady Vicencio, ABS-CBN News.
05:51.4
The Philippine government eyeing around $100 billion in investments
05:57.1
as a result of President Marcos Jr.'s historic trilateral meeting
06:01.4
with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Humeo Kishida.
06:06.1
Manila's envoy to Washington, Juan Manuel Romualde, says
06:09.4
the investments are expected to materialize in the next 5 to 10 years.
06:14.5
Romualde adds a lot of the investments may be in the semiconductor industry and energy sectors.
06:21.4
Marcos is expected to hold talks with small, modular nuclear power companies
06:26.4
on the sidelines of the trilateral summit.
06:29.9
Romualde also says they're looking at forging a free trade agreement
06:33.1
with the U.S. on cyberspace and digital technology.
06:39.1
A lot of areas where we are putting ourselves, our economic managers,
06:45.6
are putting our country into a situation where we're opening up our economy,
06:51.4
especially in energy, which is very important for us,
06:55.5
and also, of course, in digital infrastructure and infrastructure,
06:59.4
physical infrastructure, as also one of the other aspects of our economic package
07:06.0
that we'd like to offer for potential investors.
07:10.5
Meanwhile, U.S. National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby says
07:15.3
there's no reason for China to, quote,
07:17.9
overreact to multilateral strategies happening in the region,
07:21.4
It's after the Philippines, Australia, Japan, and the U.S.
07:25.1
conducted maritime drills in the West Philippine Sea.
07:30.2
This is about freedom of navigation.
07:34.4
It's about adherence to international law.
07:36.2
It's about proving the simple point that we and our allies will fly, sail, and operate
07:45.0
wherever international law permits us to do.
07:48.2
And it does in the South China Sea.
07:54.8
The Philippines' trade deficit narrows in February as exports pick up pace.
08:00.5
The country's trade shortfall came in at $3.65 billion.
08:04.4
That's down by 6% from 2023.
08:07.3
Exports amounted to $6 billion with electronic products accounting for most of the outbound shipment.
08:13.6
The U.S. was the largest export market of the Philippines, followed by Japan and Hong Kong.
08:18.9
Imports also rebounded to 9.5 billion.
08:21.1
The U.S. was the largest export market of the Philippines, followed by Japan and Hong Kong.
08:21.4
China was the biggest source of inbound shipments, followed by Japan and South Korea.
08:30.0
More Filipinos had jobs in the second month of the year.
08:33.7
The Philippine Statistics Bureau reports a jobless rate fell to 3.5% in February.
08:39.7
That's the second lowest figure since it amended the definition of unemployment in 2005.
08:46.4
It also translates to 1.8 million Filipinos out of work.
08:50.5
According to the PSA, there were also fewer Filipinos looking for extra working hours in February,
08:56.7
with the underemployment rate falling to 12.4%.
09:00.6
Manila's top economist, NEDA Secretary Arsenio Barisakan, says
09:04.7
the Barco's administration remains committed to attracting more job-generating investments.
09:11.9
Here are some local corporate headlines.
09:14.1
Monday, Nia Sin posting record revenues in 2023 at P80.2 billion.
09:19.3
The growth was dramatic.
09:20.5
Driven by broad-based APAC-branded food and beverage volume growth,
09:24.9
which offset the softer meat alternative business under corn foods.
09:29.5
However, including one-offs, net loss for the full year was pegged at 625 million pesos
09:34.6
due to non-cash, non-operating impairment of assets in the meat alternative business.
09:41.4
Meanwhile, Balay ni Frutas logs a 58% surge in its bottom line last year
09:46.6
as revenue jumped just as much to over P530.
09:50.5
Balay says it outperformed all other food service firms on the local boards
09:56.6
despite inflationary pressure.
09:58.3
It did so through limited price increases and a shift in product mix towards higher margin products.
10:06.1
And finally, integrated microelectronics unit VIA Optronics
10:09.8
to voluntarily delist its American depository shares from the New York Stock Exchange.
10:15.6
VIA believes delisting from the U.S. public markets will be more economical
10:19.5
given the low listings.
10:20.5
The liquidity of a DSES and the high cost of maintaining its NYSE listing
10:26.7
and U.S. SEC registration.
10:30.8
We're taking a quick break.
10:32.4
Up next, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Jeremiah Ouyang
10:35.9
shares his thoughts on the future of AI.
11:05.4
But beyond the novelty of chatbots and generative AI,
11:09.4
what kind of future can the tech bring?
11:12.4
Our North American Bureau Chief, TJ Manotok,
11:15.3
sits down with Jeremiah Ouyang of Blitzscaling Ventures
11:19.0
to discuss the future of AI.
11:20.3
AI, and the heated debates
11:22.4
in regulating the technology.
11:26.4
Red Jer, hey, great to see you again.
11:28.6
Hey, great to meet you. I've missed you. It's been
11:30.2
about 10 years since you mentioned
11:32.2
that you were talking
11:34.3
about social media, about digital marketing.
11:36.6
How have, as I was going to say,
11:38.1
how have you evolved in your focus
11:40.0
on your work and advocacy, but you wanted to
11:42.0
default. What's been
11:44.2
up with you the last decade
11:46.1
since you got up here then? Well, I'd
11:48.1
love to stay on top of New Tech Trends.
11:49.9
My new mission was to help companies connect
11:52.0
to their customers with new technologies,
11:54.5
and that's what I've done at .com,
11:56.2
Web2, the sharing cloud, and Web3,
11:58.5
and here we are in the AI. Yeah, exactly.
12:00.4
And I've been here in Silicon Valley for around
12:02.1
28 years, and I've never seen a movement
12:04.2
be as big as this one right
12:06.3
now. This is something really incredible.
12:08.8
I can't wait to tell you. That says
12:10.3
a lot. I mean, the fact that you've seen
12:12.5
everything in the last
12:14.1
three decades or so, but you're saying this is the biggest
12:16.3
movement. Tell us about what's been happening
12:18.3
since post-pandemic with the
12:19.7
pandemic happened. It affected
12:21.5
obviously everything, but the tech
12:23.7
industry kind of got disjointed, people
12:25.8
working off-site, remote, all that, and
12:27.7
then during these layoffs, you know,
12:29.8
sometime last year. But this AI boom
12:31.5
last six months, what's it been like for
12:33.8
her? The biggest trigger for the AI
12:35.9
boom was when ChatGPT
12:37.7
in November 2022 really showed
12:39.9
the world what it's like to talk to AI.
12:42.3
And you didn't have to have a degree
12:44.1
in computer programming or
12:45.8
a PhD. Anybody could start to have
12:47.8
a conversation with it. And just,
12:49.7
just using text, just using a phone,
12:51.8
very simple, and it showed the world.
12:53.9
And they had 1 million users
12:55.6
adopted in just five days. Yeah.
12:57.5
We've never seen adoption at that level before.
12:59.8
Yeah. Yeah. Since then,
13:01.7
thousands of startups have birthed around this.
13:04.0
Wow. Right now, the current
13:05.4
record, there's a database, I think there's a
13:07.6
website called there's an AI for that.
13:09.9
Ah, over there, of course.
13:13.9
different AI projects
13:15.5
as of March 2024.
13:17.2
What's happening in the culture of the small
13:19.4
startups? And what kind of
13:20.7
innovations are they looking at? They're not, obviously
13:23.5
they're not intimidated by the fact that
13:25.2
open AI is out there, Google is out there,
13:27.5
and then the big ones. But what's it doing? What are you
13:29.3
seeing on the ground in that integrity?
13:31.8
There's incredible in-person
13:33.5
energy around the AI industry.
13:35.9
Part of that is because people were
13:37.3
cooped up during hand-damaging quarantine.
13:39.5
And people want to be together. There's a
13:41.3
cultural mindset in the SFDA area
13:46.1
And the AI first mindset
13:47.6
means if you have a problem,
13:49.4
you first see if there's an AI out there
13:51.4
that can solve that problem, okay?
13:53.4
Okay, now, if an AI doesn't exist,
13:55.4
then you figure out, can I build it
13:57.4
myself, and can I glue it together?
13:59.4
And if that doesn't work, then finally
14:01.4
you hire a human, and you build
14:03.4
it, and that can probably become a company.
14:05.4
How do businesses adjust? Because we saw
14:07.4
in the last, like,
14:09.4
10, 15 years, there was a learning curve when they went
14:11.4
digital. You know, somewhere has it been somewhere
14:13.4
slow to transition to digital
14:15.4
first, and now you're calling this AI
14:17.4
first. That's right. So, in a general sense,
14:19.4
if you're advising these companies,
14:21.4
the traditional big corporations out there, how
14:23.4
to adapt in the world of AI?
14:25.4
You know, how do you explain this to them
14:29.4
too giddy as well in jumping on the first thing
14:31.4
they see that walks through the door?
14:33.4
Big companies are very careful about
14:35.4
their brand, and they're being cautious
14:37.4
about how they openly use these things
14:39.4
in public. Right now, there's continued
14:41.4
to be more layoffs
14:43.4
across the world, and AI is
14:45.4
replacing jobs. Customer face,
14:47.4
replacing roles that are digital, such as
14:49.4
customer care, contact centers, marketing,
14:51.4
sales. A lot of those roles
14:53.4
are being replaced with AI, and they're
14:55.4
not going to come back. Okay. And this
14:57.4
is a very big change, specifically
14:59.4
for countries where this is like the
15:01.4
Philippines. I was about to say, the India,
15:03.4
Philippines, you know, 10, 15 years
15:05.4
ago, we were at the top of outsourcing, right?
15:07.4
Voice calls. And now they're hitting us now.
15:09.4
There's been massive layoffs in
15:11.4
customer care, contact center roles, because
15:13.4
those roles are now being digitized
15:15.4
by the AI. The calls that
15:17.4
you see, for whatever it's worth, they
15:19.4
said, hey, there will be a net growth.
15:21.4
And when they said that, yeah, we'll
15:23.4
cut jobs to them through voice, but we'll
15:25.4
have new jobs created. Because then you'll
15:27.4
need people who will be encoders, who
15:29.4
will be analysts, all that.
15:31.4
But that was before AI.
15:33.4
So now with AI, is it completely gone? I mean,
15:35.4
are we seeing that kind of a
15:37.4
job that is giving jobs to millions of
15:39.4
Asians, and Indians, and Philippines, and
15:41.4
whatnot? Is that completely gone? Do we have to tap elsewhere
15:43.4
as a business? A lot of the tier
15:45.4
one roles for contact center and customer
15:47.4
care, those can be automated.
15:49.4
But for the more high-touch, higher brand
15:51.4
values, those still will be used.
15:53.4
Yes. And so we will
15:57.4
white glove service from the human.
15:59.4
That has to be for the certain type of brand.
16:01.4
Correct, yeah. The thing is, we can
16:03.4
replicate voices and they can sound very
16:05.4
real and very authentic. You can
16:07.4
even do videos that
16:09.4
are just like humans. And so
16:11.4
the cost of that is going to be close
16:13.4
to zero. It's more, they're going to be
16:15.4
available at all times. So
16:17.4
this is a real big impact to anybody who is
16:19.4
using digital for customer care.
16:21.4
Educational. I remember, it's easy to look
16:23.4
five, six years ago, everyone saying, your kids have to
16:25.4
learn to code. It's now got to be as
16:27.4
basic as math and English, right? Learn to code.
16:29.4
Is that still the case now? Do they need to
16:31.4
learn to code, or is AI going to just take
16:33.4
care of that? Your kids do not
16:35.4
need to learn how to code.
16:37.4
In fact, there are no hard skills
16:39.4
that would be math, science,
16:41.4
coding processes, programming,
16:43.4
that AI won't be able to
16:45.4
do within the next few years.
16:47.4
Is it going to revolutionize education
16:49.4
sooner than you think? It is. And so
16:51.4
where we're going to see value is when kids
16:53.4
learn how to learn. So my
16:55.4
business partner, Chris Yeh, calls this
16:57.4
infinite learning. And also
16:59.4
soft skills will rise up.
17:01.4
So those are how you work with others,
17:03.4
and the leadership,
17:05.4
those are skills that are going to become
17:07.4
way more important than the hard skills.
17:09.4
Now, it doesn't mean you should not
17:11.4
learn hard skills. It's just that
17:13.4
that is not where you should put all of your
17:15.4
effort into the next generation still
17:17.4
at this stage. And I'm not alone in
17:19.4
thinking this. Many of the AI leaders in this
17:21.4
phase understand this as well.
17:23.4
Certainly, understanding how to code will help
17:25.4
you better relate to AI, but
17:27.4
it's no longer dependency on finding the
17:29.4
job. There's multiple studies
17:31.4
now that programmers can't find jobs as
17:33.4
quickly, and the cost of their
17:35.4
skill set is going to decrease.
17:37.4
So the jobs will be available for kids
17:39.4
in the next 5, 10, 15 years?
17:41.4
So we need to rethink really what is the jobs
17:43.4
that are going to be available, because really
17:45.4
the fear that people have around AI isn't
17:47.4
about losing their job. I would say
17:49.4
that 90% of the people in the world don't
17:51.4
love their job. What they're afraid
17:53.4
of is losing their income.
17:55.4
So we need to rethink
17:57.4
from an economic standpoint
17:59.4
at the country level,
18:01.4
how do we distribute resources
18:03.4
so nobody gets left behind when a massive
18:05.4
automation that's going to be coming very soon.
18:07.4
There's been multiple tests of Universal Basic
18:09.4
Universal Basic in very small
18:13.4
UBI, of course. There are some countries like
18:15.4
in Northern Europe,
18:17.4
certain Asian countries where we see this
18:19.4
proliferation, but that's something
18:21.4
we'll have to see more. I mean,
18:23.4
make no mistake that Sam Altman launched
18:25.4
his own UBI project as
18:27.4
a beta called Worldquake.
18:29.4
A way she would eventually
18:33.4
resources. It's a way for him to hedge
18:35.4
the potential anger that's about to come his way.
18:37.4
Now, the elephant in
18:39.4
everybody's room is governments
18:41.4
shouldn't they step in and regulate?
18:45.4
the U.S. government huddled with the big companies
18:47.4
with big tech already.
18:49.4
How did they even do it? Because I remember there was an argument
18:51.4
and they'd say, you do regulate what's in your country.
18:53.4
What happens to China? What happens to
18:55.4
as you said, India, Europe,
18:57.4
in Dubai, how do we
18:59.4
adjust? This month
19:03.4
there has been a lawsuit,
19:05.4
a regulatory lawsuit from Europe.
19:07.4
One of the countries has fined Google
19:09.4
for indexing their
19:11.4
content and turning it into AI.
19:13.4
It's hundreds of billion dollars worth of fines.
19:17.4
put forth very stringent regulations
19:19.4
around AI from U.S.
19:21.4
based countries. Now, the upside
19:23.4
of this is it protects their culture. The
19:25.4
downside is it reduces the
19:27.4
opportunity for innovation in their own cultures.
19:31.4
countries' instincts are to
19:33.4
regulate technically Silicon Valley
19:35.4
and the Seattle area where a lot of these
19:37.4
technologies are coming from. But they
19:39.4
need to be careful. If they do this in the wrong way,
19:41.4
their entrepreneurs are not going to want to
19:43.4
build the AI models that their own
19:45.4
country made. They're just going to have to flee
19:47.4
to the west coast of the United States, which is
19:49.4
happening in abundance.
19:51.4
Correct. There are those who have
19:53.4
given, aired out their concerns
19:55.4
about the potential of AI and
19:57.4
where it's going.
20:01.4
I see them as big names.
20:03.4
Mo Cantat, formerly from Google.
20:05.4
Elon Musk, who at some time ago
20:07.4
was raising his concerns about AI
20:09.4
before he brought out rock.
20:11.4
But is there any concern?
20:13.4
You're in the thick of things.
20:15.4
You seem grown now. Do you have any personal
20:17.4
concerns how this could get out of hand
20:19.4
quickly because of the way that it's
20:21.4
multiplying in terms
20:23.4
of its speed and strength?
20:25.4
I have two ways to respond
20:27.4
to this. One, I do see this as a
20:29.4
monumental technology shift.
20:31.4
Other times in history is when
20:33.4
humankind developed and harnessed
20:35.4
the fire for cooking, but it's also
20:37.4
became a weapon. It can be
20:39.4
out of control that causes wildfires.
20:41.4
And the same thing with splitting
20:43.4
atoms. Splitting atoms have been used
20:45.4
for horrible things in warfare.
20:47.4
But at the same time can provide
20:49.4
incredible amounts of energy that can
20:51.4
help civilizations.
20:53.4
I see AI in the same light.
20:55.4
It is a tool for mass destruction
20:57.4
if used it correctly or irresponsibly.
21:01.4
tool which could be used
21:03.4
in irresponsible ways or for great
21:05.4
harm, but at the same time
21:07.4
it could be used to
21:09.4
solve cancer, fix the
21:11.4
economy, educate every
21:13.4
child on the planet with an expert
21:15.4
and genius tutor,
21:17.4
and create a global translation
21:19.4
for global commerce and traded relationships.
21:21.4
There's many upsides with AI.
21:23.4
We can't just simply look at the downsides.
21:25.4
It is like fire splitting the atom
21:29.4
What excites you the most?
21:31.4
I'm so excited about the energy in the SFA area.
21:33.4
In this month of March 2024,
21:43.4
San Francisco Bay Airlines.
21:45.4
Around 7 million people.
21:47.4
The biggest countries will have
21:51.4
I've never seen this level of energy and excitement
21:53.4
around the tech trend.
21:55.4
This is something way bigger than Elon.com.
21:57.4
You're putting up your own events, right?
21:59.4
You could be out there participating
22:01.4
and talking and judging,
22:03.4
but you're making it up.
22:05.4
I love to lead community.
22:07.4
I love to help form community.
22:09.4
So I launched my own event series called
22:13.4
Ten different AI founders
22:15.4
get the opportunity to be on the demo floor.
22:17.4
We have hundreds,
22:19.4
300 people on our show.
22:21.4
Usually several dozen VCs and investors
22:23.4
and executives who want to partner.
22:25.4
And this is a way for me to understand
22:27.4
what's happening in the market.
22:29.4
It's just one event of many
22:31.4
in this exciting time in the AI industry.
22:39.4
And before we go,
22:41.4
we have this just in.
22:43.4
The European Central Bank keeps its key rates unchanged
22:47.4
meaning domestic price pressures remain strong
22:49.4
and are keeping services price inflation high.
22:53.4
Market Watchers now waiting for ECB President
22:55.4
Christine Lagarde's press conference
22:57.4
for hints on when rate cuts will come.
22:59.4
That's your Business Outlook.
23:03.4
And I'm Salve Duplito.
23:05.4
The world tonight comes your way
23:07.4
at the top of the next hour.
23:09.4
Keep it here on ANC.
23:17.4
We'll be right back.
