Singapore prepares ahead to leverage Artificial Intelligence for a better future

Asia Tech x Singapore (ATxSG) 2024, Asia’s flagship tech platform, opened today for its fourth edition with the launch of the nation’s Digital Enterprise Blueprint (DEB) by Mr Tan Kiat How, Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information. This initiative aims to accelerate digital transformation and empower Singaporean enterprises by leveraging emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The DEB charts the next chapter in Singapore’s enterprise digitalisation journey, amidst a rapidly evolving technological landscape and fast-growing digital economy. To establish the Republic as a nation of empowered enterprises and to elevate businesses and workers in the age of AI, the Blueprint will facilitate an environment for experimentation, encourage Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to harness technology to optimise the way they work, and strengthen digital resilience and cybersecurity across the ecosystem. 50,000 SMEs are expected to benefit over the next five years from the new DEB through four key focus areas:

1. Empower enterprises to be smarter by adopting AI-enabled solutions
2. Enable enterprises to scale faster through cloud-based and integrated solutions
3. Equip enterprises to be safer through improved cyber resilience
4. Support enterprises to upskill workers to make full use of digital capabilities

Seven partners have already come onboard to pledge their commitment to the DEB, including Singapore Business Federation (SBF), Singapore Computer Society (SCS), SGTech, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, Microsoft and Salesforce.

As part of DEB efforts to empower SMEs to be smarter by adopting AI, IMDA has worked with sector leads to co-develop Industry Digital Plans (IDPs), a roadmap for enterprises which highlights solutions that meet specific needs of the sector. IMDA will refresh the IDPs to incorporate AI-enabled solutions that would be relevant to meet the needs of the enterprises in that sector. IMDA expects 15,000 SMEs to benefit from AI-enabled solutions under the SMEs Go Digital programme over the next two years. For digitally mature SMEs, and as part of IMDA’s GenAI x Digital Leaders initiative, IMDA has partnered technology giants to benefit more than 400 such enterprises.

Launch of SGTech Apprenticeship: In collaboration with IMDA and the TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA) for ITE and Polytechnics (TIP) Alliance, SGTech is launching the Tech Apprenticeship Programme (TAP) to expand the career pathways of graduates by providing access to industry apprenticeships that offer on-the-job training and development opportunities. Over the next two and a half years, SGTech hopes to facilitate the placement of at least 300 apprentices who are fresh or mid-career professionals from polytechnic or ITE backgrounds and drive the adoption of similar practices that promote more inclusive hiring and career agility.

Unlocking new and potential AI capabilities in Singapore

IMDA and the Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today aimed at uplifting the productivity of the legal sector through the use of GenAI. As part of this partnership, GPT-Legal, a new large language model (LLM) which is contextualised for Singapore’s legal sector, will be co-developed. The model will be integrated into SAL’s research platform LawNet, which is accessible by 75% of Singapore’s lawyers, for ease of access. The model will automatically generate more than 15,000 summaries of unreported judgments on LawNet from September 2024. By equipping legal professionals with tools to leverage generative AI, they can now focus on higher-value work for their clients. The partnership will catalyse the next bound of GenAI innovations in Singapore’s legal sector, paving the way for our law firms and legal tech companies to build upon it, while ensuring guardrails are in place so that AI can be used as a trusted tool. SAL will also be penning an MoU with the National University of Singapore and AI Singapore to develop its AI capabilities and create a certification to recognise AI specialists in the legal profession.

Additionally, Tribe and Digital Industry Singapore (DISG) today announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to launch the Ignition AI Accelerator for local and global AI startups to create and bring to market the next wave of advancement in AI solutions. DISG is a joint office by Economic Development Board, Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) and IMDA to spearhead the growth and development of Singapore’s tech sector. The accelerator is strategic and a first in Southeast Asia for Tribe and NVIDIA, supported by the Singapore government. This curated four-month programme will nurture 15 high-potential startups, equipping them with well-rounded support covering business and technical needs. There will be a special focus on providing best-in-class deep AI development guidance to accelerate the production of market- ready AI products and access to market.

As part of this programme, NVIDIA and Tribe will collaborate with EnterpriseSG to offer qualified AI startups funding support through the Startup SG Tech scheme. This collaboration will also tap on Tribe and NVIDIA’s expertise to expediently assess selected high-quality AI startups who will be able to leverage Startup SG Tech funding for technology development and business growth¹. Additionally, NVIDIA and Tribe will assist them through the IMDA Accreditation process, with the aim to help them to establish credentials and position themselves as qualified contenders for government projects and large enterprise contracts, ultimately accelerating their global market access.

Shaping Global Digital Compact

Singapore hosted the final meeting of the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General’s Artificial Intelligence Advisory Body (AIAB) from 28-29 May. This was the only full in-person AIAB meeting held outside of UN headquarters. As part of the meeting agenda, Singapore facilitated an engagement session between the AIAB and the Digital Forum of Small States (Digital FOSS), whose members are in Singapore for a week-long Digital FOSS Fellowship Programme. Digital FOSS Fellows had the opportunity to exchange views with AIAB members on the topic of AI governance, particularly on the implications and challenges faced by small states. The dialogue also touched on AIAB’s recommendations that will feed into the discussions on the Global Digital Compact, which is targeted to be finalised in the second half of 2024 at the United Nations’ Summit of the Future. Through such efforts Singapore aims to promote a more inclusive approach towards shaping global AI and digital governance.

ATxSummit, the by-invitation only headline of ATxSG will gather more than 4,000 attendees from over 80 countries joining us here in Singapore as well as virtually this year. The event will feature an Opening Gala graced by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, President of the Republic of Singapore, and three exclusive conference tracks – ATxSummit Plenary, ATxAI and Women and Youth in Tech.

For more information on ATxSG, please visit: asiatechxsg.com. Register for the virtual ATxSummit session here.