1. Singapore has announced plans to inject around £740m (S$1.2bn) into AI development over the next five years,
2. In 2023, Silicon Box, a semiconductor integration company, announced the launch of its $2bn semiconductor manufacturing foundry in Singapore.
3. Located in Tampines, the chip factory is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs with the backing from the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).
4. Silicon Box’s facility marks a step forward for Singapore’s ambition to expand its manufacturing industry by 50% by 2030.
5. It is also expected to increase Singapore’s appeal as a desirable location for AI, as semiconductor businesses look to diversify their manufacturing supply chains amid rising geopolitical concerns.
6. Singapore was among the first countries to publish an AI plan in 2019. In December 2023 it launched an updated version of the strategy, outlining ways to harness and use AI for economic empowerment.
7. The city-state took a proactive stance in AI governance by introducing AI Verify in May 2022 – the world’s first AI governance testing framework and software toolkit for companies.
8. Companies like Google, Meta, and Microsoft have already tested the AI Verify tool and provided feedback, demonstrating a collaborative effort towards promoting responsible AI use.
SINGAPORE’S SMART NATION 2.0 POLICY FOCUSES ON AI AND BUILDING RESILIENCE
1. To keep up with the rapid developments in the technology space, Singapore’s Smart Nation 2.0 will include a S$120 million fund for artificial intelligence (AI) adoption and a new agency to tackle online bullying and other harms.
2. Announcing the launch of the refreshed vision on Tuesday, Singapore Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Lawrence Wong, said Smart Nation 2.0 would seek to achieve three key goals: Trust, Growth, and Community.
3. “These goals will serve as a compass, shaping how we use technology to improve citizens’ lives and create a thriving digital future for all,” he added.
4. The Prime Minister’s announcement was a major update on the original Smart Nation vision introduced in 2014.
5. As Singapore’s Minister in charge of the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI), Josephine Teo, said in July, AI was an important part of the updated Smart Nation policy.
6. The S$120 million investment by the government would be for an “AI for Science” initiative. Led by the National Research Foundation (NRF), the “AI for Science” initiative will focus on developing and adopting AI methods and tools that are transferable across multiple domains of science to enhance research productivity and advance scientific discovery.
7. It will fund collaborations between AI researchers and scientific domain experts in thematic areas that are of interest to Singapore, such as advanced materials research and biomedical and health sciences.
8. In this context, he said the initiative would cultivate a new generation of interdisciplinary researchers who were “bilingual”, or proficient in both AI technologies and one or more scientific domains. Additionally, the fund will support collaborations between Singapore-based researchers and international counterparts to fill in capability gaps and seed new expertise in Singapore.
9. As part of the effort to the initiative, the government will launch a new Smart Nation Educator Fellowship in 2025. The six-month programme will help senior specialists and teacher leaders better understand the latest digital issues.
10. The educators would then be able to translate the knowledge and skills they acquire into curriculum design or effective teaching and learning strategies which they would be able to share with other educators.
11. Starting next year, the government will also introduce new “AI for Fun” modules that will offer students further opportunities for hands-on exploration and tinkering with technology, such as through the design of prototypes incorporating AI.
IMPROVING INFRASTRUCTURE RESILIENCE
1. The government will introduce a new Digital Infrastructure Act in 2025 to improve the resilience and security of key digital infrastructure and services.
2. Noting that disruption was not always caused by cyberattacks, the Prime Minister said the proposed law will go beyond cybersecurity risks to address a broader set of resilience and security risks across systematically important digital infrastructure, ranging from technical misconfigurations to physical hazards such as fires and cooling system failures.
3. The law will better enable victims to seek civil remedies against perpetrators of online harms.
4. The agency will act on behalf of victims to direct perpetrators and online service providers to put a stop to the online harm quickly, providing added assurance on top of existing regulatory levers and court-based processes available today, he said.
Source:
https://www.investmentmonitor.ai/news/singapore-boosts-ai-ambitions-with-740m-investment-plan/?cf-view
https://govinsider.asia/intl-en/article/singapores-smart-nation-20-policy-focuses-on-ai-and-building-resilience
