In late 2022, there was the official launch of the latest innovation in artificial intelligence (AI), ChatGPT. GPT stands for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer.” This innovation is believed to be a major turning point in computing technology. This is a chatbot powered by a “large language model” (LLM) which was made by Open AI, a start-up company closely linked to Microsoft.
However, the unbelievably rapid success of this chatbot has prompted Google and other tech firms to release their own LLM-powered chatbots. This system is said to have the capability to automatically generate texts like essays and presentations, and hold realistic discussions because they have been trained using millions of words taken from the internet. The latest trend now among technology firms is to fine tune these LLMs.
According to a recent article in The Economist: “It will make access to AI much cheaper, accelerate innovation across the field and make it easier for researchers to analyze the behavior of AI systems, boosting transparency and safety.”
A recent 155-page research paper from researchers at Microsoft is claiming that AI technology now has the ability to understand and reason the way people do. This new system is considered to be a step towards artificial general intelligence or AGI, which is shorthand for a machine that can do anything the human brain can do. This has now sparked a debate in the world of technology on whether it is possible to build something akin to human intelligence.
Microsoft’s research paper is called “Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence.” Some believe that the industry is now slowly inching towards developing a new AI system that is coming up with human-like answers and ideas that were not programmed into it.
All these recent technological developments have led some scientists to predict that AI will lead to the elimination of many jobs that require simple skills. It seems that in the future world, people will need a higher level of education to cope with all these technological developments.
If education becomes the key to progressing in this world of AI, data science, chatGPT and other technologies yet to be invented, the question is, is the Philippines ready for these challenges?
The best way so far is to survey the quality of Philippine higher education, especially the universities. EduRank is an independent metric-based ranking of 14,131 universities from 183 countries. It uses a proprietary data base with an index of 44,909,300 scientific publications and 1,237,541,960 citations to rank universities across 246 research topics. In its overall rankings globally, EduRank adds non-academic prominence and alumni popularity indicators. Its most recent rankings were updated as of May 18, 2022.
EduRank’s overall rankings consist of three parts: 45 percent research performance; 45 percent non-academic prominence; 10 percent alumni score.
With a population of 110 million, the Philippines did not have a single university in the top 1,000 universities in the world. Among the top 500 universities in Asia, there were only two Philippine-based universities: University of the Philippines-Diliman and De La Salle University-Manila.
The Philippines must ensure that its basic education should at least be competitive on an Asia-wide scale. However, if it is to become globally competitive in the new world of technology-driven society, it must address the current deplorable state of university level education.
Here is a list of EduRank’s ranking of the top 20 best universities in the Philippines and their respective ranks in Asia and the world.
1. University of the Philippines-Diliman (#378 in Asia, #1,380 in the world)
2. De La Salle University-Manila (#462 in Asia, #1,643 in the world)
3. Ateneo de Manila University (#545 in Asia, #1,878 in the world)
4. University of Santo Tomas-Manila (#781 in Asia, #2,575 in the world)
5. University of the Philippines-Manila (#814 in Asia, #2,686 in the world)
6. University of the Philippines-Los Baños (#878 in Asia, #2,819 in the world)
7. University of San Carlos-Cebu (#1,280 in Asia, #3,838 in the world)
8. Mindanao State University-Marawi (#1528 in Asia, #4,407 in the world)
9. Asian Institute of Management-Makati (#1,536 in Asia, #4,424 in the world)
10. Mapua University- Manila (#1571 in Asia, #4,512 in the world)
11. University of the East -Philippines-Manila (#1,778 in Asia, #4,979 in the world)
12. Silliman University-Dumaguete City (#1,798 in Asia, #5,019 in the world)
13. University of Asia and the Pacific- Pasig (#1,953 in Asia, #5,350 in the world)
14. Visayas State University-Baybay (#1,979 in Asia, #5,426 in the world)
15. Far Eastern University-Philippines-Manila (#2,077 in Asia, #5,660 in the world)
16. De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde-Manila (#2,110 in Asia, #5,736 in the world)
17. University of the Philippines in the Visayas-Iloilo(#2,132 in Asia, #5,788 in the world)
18. Central Luzon State University-Science City of Muñoz (#2,149 in Asia, #5,820 in the world)
19. Adamson University-Manila (#2,184 in Asia, #5,898 in the world)
20. Polytechnic University of the Philippines-Manila (#2,219 in Asia, #5,977 in the world)
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