AI Is Not the Future – It is Now

I felt humbled and honored to be invited as a workshop guest speaker by the Computer Students' Association (COMPASS) of the Technological University of the Philippines - Manila on May 19, 2025. The workshop, "Cloud Frontier: Data in the Sky, AI Beyond the Horizon," introduces students to Cloud Computing and Artificial Intelligence, what problems it can solve, and what skillsets to acquire to stay relevant in this ever-changing software engineering landscape.

My keynote came in two parts. The first part, entitled "AI is Not the Future - It is Now", dispels the notion that AI is 5 - 10 years down the road, and explores the idea that we are at the very heart of the AI Revolution as we speak. We also put forward the idea that this may have happened before, and what we see is not much unlike the Industrial Revolution that started during the 1760s.

I intend to instill a sense of urgency in our students that equipping themselves with AI-related skills is not optional anymore, but mandatory to stay relevant in the modern workplace.

Even the Catholic Church recognizes the social impact of the AI Revolution. In his first formal address, Pope Leo XIV told the College of Cardinals he chose his name to honor Pope Leo XIII, known for championing social issues and workers' rights during the post–Industrial Revolution era. He sees a parallel between the Industrial Revolution and the ongoing AI Revolution.

We also explored the possible skill sets and career paths that are highly relevant in the era of Artificial Intelligence.

The second part of my keynote is entitled "AI-Powered Image Search Engine with Amazon Bedrock", where we go beyond theory and history and build an AI-powered application on site. As the demo project is too large to be implemented in an hour, the students were assigned to get a subset of the project: to let Amazon Bedrock describe and upload an image in a detailed paragraph.

To turn up the heat, a cash prize was offered to the first group that could implement the mentioned AI exercise. Clifford's team proudly bagged the award.

With me is Asi Guiang, a co-guest speaker who led the morning session with his keynote on Cloud Computing with Amazon Web Services.

Special thanks to Vince and Dwayne for contacting me and arranging this workshop.

Special thanks to my wife and my kid, who offered unconditional support throughout my speaking engagement.

Again, thank you so much to everyone involved in the event.