Author: Naga City People’s Council Naga City Arts and Culture Coalition, Inc.
Date Filed: June 3, 2026
This ordinance establishes a comprehensive ethical framework to regulate the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across all city-funded creative, artistic, and cultural initiatives. Recognizing the dual nature of AI as an innovative tool that simultaneously risks displacing local creative talent, the measure seeks to protect the economic and moral rights of human creators. By instituting strict transparency requirements, prohibiting the cost-cutting replacement of human workers, and safeguarding indigenous Bicolano heritage, the ordinance aims to foster innovation while ensuring that AI remains a strictly supplementary tool directed by human oversight and community participation.
Highlights of Proposed Ordinance
- MANDATORY LOCAL STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT: Before deploying AI in any cultural or artistic project, city offices or contracted third parties must consult, coordinate with, or commission local creative practitioners and heritage advocates. They are required to coordinate with Civil Society through the Naga City People’s Council for proper talent recommendations and project endorsements.
- FAIR CONTRACTING & COMPENSATION PROTECTIONS: The ordinance expressly bans the use of AI tools to avoid, reduce, or circumvent the professional fees, honoraria, or royalties legally owed to human creators. Local practitioners must be properly contracted and fairly compensated in accordance with industry standards.
- STRICT TRANSPARENCY & DISCLOSURE RULES: All city-funded projects involving AI-assisted content must display clear public disclosures detailing the specific AI tools used, the extent of their use, and the human creators or supervisors involved. Additionally, the workflow must be recorded to prove significant human oversight guided the AI.
- ETHICAL & CULTURAL SAFEGUARDS: AI tools are strictly prohibited from generating content that distorts, misrepresents, exploits, or trivializes the Bikol language, local history, and traditional cultural expressions. Any AI prompts or training data dealing with culturally sensitive material must first be reviewed by technical and cultural experts.
- PROHIBITED ACTS & PENALTIES: The ordinance outlaws passing off AI-generated work as purely human-made, replacing local creatives with AI solely for cost-cutting, and using AI to clone or mimic an artist’s identifiable style without consent. Violators—including city personnel and contracted suppliers—will face administrative, contractual, or legal sanctions.
- OVERSIGHT & ENFORCEMENT: The City will designate a specific office, committee, or technical expert body to work directly with the City’s Heritage, Arts, and Culture Council to oversee compliance, issue supplemental guidelines, and manage ethical reporting mechanisms.
- Proposed