Singapore updates AI strategy with aim to contribute globally valuable breakthroughs

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer something good to have but is a subject that people must know, according to a renewed AI strategy to take Singapore forward in the global race.

Announcing the revised national game plan on Dec 4, Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Lawrence Wong said: “Knowledge-based work like research, coding and writing was considered safe from disruption in the past. But with AI, that is no longer the case,” he said, referring to recent breakthroughs in generative AI.

Specifically, developments in generative AI such as ChatGPT, which are capable of creating text, images and other media, have put advanced AI tools with near-human-like intelligence in the hands of anyone with an Internet connection.

Likening using these tools to entering uncharted territory, DPM Wong said Singapore has to take a more systematic way to harness the benefits of AI for public good while mitigating its impact on jobs and livelihoods, as well as other risks such as deepfakes, scams, cyber attacks and misinformation.

Thus, there is a need to update Singapore’s original AI strategy, first launched in 2019.

Dubbed National AI Strategy 2.0: AI for the Public Good for Singapore and the World (Nais 2.0), the new strategy focuses on nurturing talent, promoting a thriving AI industry, and sustaining it with world-leading infrastructure and research that ensures AI serves the public good.

“The Government plans to invest significantly in adult education and training to reskill and upskill our workers,” said DPM Wong, who was speaking at the National Gallery to a room of global tech industry leaders gathered for the Singapore Conference on AI, held between Dec 4 and 6.
 

Explaining the overhauled strategy, DPM Wong said: “Recent breakthroughs in AI have sparked renewed interest about the potential of AI, its risks and implications to humanity... Discussions about AI’s potential benefits and threats are not new, but we are venturing into uncharted territory.”

To nurture talent here, Singapore aims to triple its number of AI practitioners to 15,000 by training locals and hiring from overseas, said DPM Wong, who is also Minister for Finance.

The group includes data and machine-learning scientists and engineers who are the backbone of translating AI into real-world apps, said DPM Wong.

Addressing fears of jobs being replaced by AI, he said there is likely to be significant changes in job roles, and the Government will invest significantly in training to ensure that workers here can adapt.

Many AI-related firms here are using AI on a project basis and for specific uses, but they can do more to build a thriving AI industry, said DPM Wong, who urged firms to create new AI models and find ways to deploy them for wider use cases.

“These centres can go beyond the needs of the specific company and benefit the wider industry,” he said. “There is potential for such industry-wide platforms in key areas like advanced manufacturing, financial services and biomedical studies, where Singapore is already operating at the leading edge.”

Researchers will also focus on ways the technology can improve its understanding of logical and physical concepts and be able to explain its answers.

Research will also look into responsible AI as a response to concerns about the biases in AI datasets and the accuracy of its answers.
 

Singapore will back its ambitions with computing power and infrastructure to meet the needs of the growing industry, said DPM Wong.

“We will not be able to compete with the major powers in assembling raw computing power, but we will do everything we can to ensure that we have the computing power to meet our growing research and industry demands, and to fully back our strategic AI agenda.”

The Government will build a trusted environment for AI and address moral and ethical issues in the field, such as whether AI is suited to make decisions in place of humans.

DPM Wong cited how nations are grappling with the negative consequences of social media, like cyber bullying and misinformation, adding that governments now have to play an active role to shape AI, which has raised even more profound issues.

Singapore will find a pragmatic balance to regulation without choking innovation, he said.

“The key in all this,” he added, “is to be agile and nimble and to keep updating our strategies and government frameworks as circumstances change.”

The new strategy is the result of extensive consultations with over 300 experts and organisations, both domestic and international.

“Recent breakthroughs in generative AI have sparked renewed interest about the potential of AI, its risks and its implications for humanity,” said DPM Wong. “Singapore believes in the long-term potential of AI.”

The new strategy will take a three-pronged approach across “activity drivers” in industry, government and public research; “people and communities”, which include talent; and “infrastructure and environment” to provide an effective and trusted environment for AI innovation.
 

Simon Chesterman, senior director of AI governance at AI Singapore, said Nais 2.0 “reflects a whole-of-government, whole-of-economy approach that is needed to reap the benefits of AI, while ensuring that those benefits are fairly distributed across Singapore, the region and beyond”.

“To thrive in a twenty-first century dominated by AI, we need to be a port for ideas – cultivating local capacity and opportunity, while also being integrated into global supply chains and processes. This new strategy puts down a marker that says we are open to AI and open for business,” he added.

A familiar name that has incorporated AI into its business is Singapore Airlines (SIA), which uses AI to optimise its operations.

George Wang, the company’s senior vice-president of information technology, said the national airline has been able to use AI to analyse customer feedback from its various channels in near real time.

The company has also been training its staff in generative AI and exploring how the technology can improve productivity, he said.

On how SIA hopes to benefit from Nais 2.0, he lauded the possible creation of sectoral AI “centres of excellence” in the industry.

“We believe the sectoral air transport AI centre of excellence, if established, will further strengthen Singapore’s position as a leading air hub and benefit the entire aviation ecosystem.”
 

The 15 courses of action in Nais 2.0

The Nais 2.0 consists of three systems, which can be broken down further into 10 enablers: talent, capabilities, placemaking, industry, government, research, compute, data, trusted environment, and leader in thought and action.
 

Industry

1. Anchor new AI “centres of excellence”

• Encourage both AI producers and users to conduct value-creation activities here
• Work with industry champions to identify and promote sectoral centres of excellence

2. Strengthen the AI startup ecosystem

• Attract more venture builders
• Develop more accelerator programmes
   

Government

3. Improve public service productivity

• Develop AI strategies to address challenges
• Optimise business lines with AI
   

Research

4. Update national AI research and development plans

• Be selective in AI research priorities
• Foster industry-academia collaboration
• Recruit top AI researchers
• Operate graphics processing units (GPUs) for Singapore’s research community
• Expand international research collaboration
   

Talent

5. Attract world’s top AI creators

• Set up a dedicated team to identify them and integrate them into Singapore’s ecosystem
• Create novel value propositions such as hybrid working arrangements, part-time employment and partnerships

6. Increase AI talent pool to 15,000 from about 4,500 currently

• Redesign AI Apprenticeship Programme to increase trainee positions
• Expand the number of company attachments
• Remain open to global talent
   

Capabilities

7. Accelerate enterprise adoption of AI

• Enhance the enterprise digitalisation toolkit
• Provide tailored support for AI-enabled business transformation

8. Upskill workforce through sector-specific AI training programmes

• Develop targeted interventions in industry transformation maps
   

Placemaking

9. Establish a dedicated physical space for AI

• Co-create the space in consultation with AI ecosystem representatives

Compute

10. Increase Singapore’s high-performance compute capacity

• Deepen partnerships with chipmakers and cloud service providers
• Allocate sufficient carbon budget and power to data centres
• Manage a small subset of Singapore-based GPUs
   

Data

11. Build capabilities in privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) and data services

• Support the research and development of PETs

12. Unlock government data for public good use cases

• Assess the feasibility of a data concierge within the government
• Advocate for trusted cross-border data flows
   

Trusted environment

13. Ensure fit-for-purpose regulatory environment

• Update AI governance frameworks to address novel risks
• Work with partners to translate guidelines into technical standards
• Establish a common platform for regulatory agencies to coordinate on AI developments
• Consider updates to broader standards and laws
• Contribute actively to international AI discourse

14. Improve security and resilience baseline

• Update cybersecurity toolkits
• Coordinate efforts to share best practices
   

Leader in thought and action

15. Establish Singapore as a trusted and capable international partner on AI innovation and governance

• Increase international mindshare in practical and risk-based approaches
• Anchor key bilateral relationships with selected partners
• Demonstrate alignment with key international fora
• Share Singapore’s experience
   

A version of this article appeared in The Straits Times and The Business Times.
© SPH Media Limited. Extracts reprinted with permission.