During the recent Smart City Expo World Congress, Singapore’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, outlined the country’s National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy.
Singapore will adopt a human-centric approach to AI, and focus on the use of the technology to deliver impactful social and economic benefits for its citizens. The government has initially identified five key sectors: Transport and Logistics, Smart Cities and Estates, Healthcare, Education, Safety, and Border Security (about 300,000 people cross the border with Malaysia daily).
The city-state of Singapore was the recipient of the Smart City award in 2018. The vast array of solutions developed by the government from dynamic public bus routing algorithms to real-time parent-teacher portals, or even predictive analytics for water pipe leaks, have proved that Singapore systematically pursues the application of innovative digital technologies to improve people’s lives.
“We believe that AI is a transformative technology. The fact that computers and systems can now see, hear, understand, and speak, is transformational. It will transform our economy and societies, and disrupt our politics. It will alter the nature of jobs, and the skills our people will need.” said Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, who is also Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Programme Office, during the Smart City Expo World Congress opening ceremony.
Singapore has established a National AI Office to drive the national AI agenda and to catalyze efforts across research, industry and government stakeholders to work on identified areas of priorities.
One key factor to its success is that Singapore, as a city-state, has a single layer of government, which results in faster and more efficient decisions. Also, half of the cabinet is made of engineers, and the Prime Minister is a mathematician and a coder.
Additionally, Singapore already has first-world digital infrastructure, with internet connectivity over fiber-optic cable in every single home and office.
According to Minister Balakrishnan, Singapore has invested over S$500 million (US $370 million) to further AI research innovation and enterprise and continues to raise its AI R&D capabilities. The country will also tap into international partnerships in areas like data sharing and digital identity cross recognition, to facilitate cross border AI collaboration to solve common challenges.
Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan – Singapore’s Minister for Foreign Affairs
“AI will change the world, and cities that master AI will get ahead”
Balakrishnan insisted on the need for a responsible approach for all artificial intelligence programs and applications. He mentioned the five pillars that the Singapore government has established for the development and implementation of AI in the country:
- Ethical use of AI – All AI deployment in Singapore must conform to the highest ethical standards. Earlier this year, Singapore published a Model AI Governance Framework – the first such framework in Asia;
- Safety and Security – Without assurances of data security, no one will trust accumulation of data on a massive scale, and the ability to integrate and use the data.
- Respect for Privacy – Citizens need to be assured that privacy will be respected, otherwise there will not be sufficient confidence to share, and yet in AI, it’s the ability to share and mash data what gives you the unique and actionable insights.
- Human-explainable AI – The solutions and answers proposed have to be comprehensible and explainable in human terms. Without that ability to explain how you arrive at the solution in terms which human beings can understand and accept, you will get pushback.
- Ensuring outcomes of AI deployment to be socially and politically acceptable – Solutions proposed have to be acceptable to people. Human beings have a very strong innate sense of fairness, what is right, what is wrong, what is good, what is bad, and we believe it is important to have this governance framework in place.
In concluding, Minister Balakrishnan shared his belief that AI will be the most disruptive technology soon: “AI will change the world and cities that master AI will get ahead. If you do not, you are at risk of being left behind. Because we are small, we will focus on relevant areas where we already have a competitive advantage, and approach it with good governance, to instill confidence in the system and outcomes.”
