DOST Answers helps people find science and technology services using natural questions in English, Filipino, or Taglish. It is a search assistant—not a decision maker, emergency service, or replacement for the responsible DOST office.
Official sources remain the authority
The system first searches published DOST pages, detects the likely citizen need, and ranks the most relevant sources. When the AI enhancement is available, it may explain those sources in simpler language. It cannot browse freely or answer from model memory. Every generated answer must cite the supplied published sources or it is suppressed.
Important limits
- Eligibility, approval, awards, and official decisions are made only by authorized government personnel.
- Deadlines, requirements, fees, and contact details should always be confirmed on the cited page.
- Emergency and hazard questions are routed to official PAGASA and PHIVOLCS information; AI does not rewrite emergency instructions.
- If evidence is weak or the AI service is unavailable, ordinary ranked search continues to work.
Privacy by design
Do not enter names, application numbers, addresses, health information, or other personal data into search. The portal does not attach search analytics to a signed-in identity or IP address. Analytics store a broad service category instead of the citizen’s verbatim question. When grounded AI is available, only a fixed category and task type—not the original free-form wording—are sent with selected sources. Queries detected as sensitive are not sent to the AI provider.
Search analytics have a 30-day retention rule. The dedicated maintenance scheduler must be provisioned and verified before public release. See the privacy notice for details about browser history, voice input, and other retention periods.
Human accountability
DOST editors can review aggregate service-topic gaps, improve vocabulary, disable generated answers without disabling search, and audit configuration changes. Public feedback helps the team correct gaps while accountable content owners remain responsible for every official page.
Try DOST Answers or use the guided service finder.