AI initiatives launched to uplift Singapore’s economic potential (Factsheet)

01 MAR 2024

Factsheet - Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiatives launched to uplift Singapore’s economic potential

1 March 2024

At the Committee of Supply (COS) Debates 2024, MCI announced several AI initiatives to power Singapore’s next bound of economic growth, including:

a) New initiatives to nurture AI research talent;

b) An investment of over $20 million in the next three years to increase the number of SG Digital Scholarships and overseas internships in AI roles;

c) An investment of up to $500 million into securing high-performance compute resources for AI innovation and capability building;

d) Launching a Generative AI x Digital Leaders Initiative to provide businesses with access to GenAI expertise and resources; and

e) The publication of Advisory Guidelines on the use of Personal Data in AI Recommendation and Decision Systems.

These initiatives align with the refreshed National AI Strategy (NAIS 2.0) launched by Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Lawrence Wong in December 2023. NAIS 2.0 aims to propel Singapore as a leader in the field of AI, and to use AI for the public good, for Singapore and the world.

To support NAIS 2.0 and further catalyse AI activities, DPM Wong announced - through his Budget Statement on 16 Feb 2024 – an investment of more than $1 billion over the next five years into AI compute, talent, and industry development.

To achieve these goals of NAIS 2.0, we have begun directing our efforts towards three systems - activity drivers; people and communities; infrastructure and environment - by working through 10 enablers. The abovementioned initiatives relate to the following enablers that are the key focus for 2024.

Enabler 1: Talent

A key focus is the building of skilled AI talent in Singapore. Such talent can be categorised in three groups – (i) Creators, who are top-tier talent engaged in novel and cutting-edge AI activities; (ii) Practitioners, which include data and machine learning scientists and engineers involved in the translation and development of AI solutions; and (iii) Users of AI-powered products and services.

As an initial step to nurture a pool of top-tier AI Creators:

a) The government will launch a new AI Visiting Professorship to attract world-class AI researchers to establish collaborations with Singapore. Refer to Annex A for more details.

b) The government will invest S$7 million into a new AI Accelerated Masters Programme in collaboration with local universities to build up our own pipeline of Singaporean AI researchers. Refer to Annex B for more details.

As for AI practitioners, we will level up and triple the pool of practitioners to 15,000 over 5 years to support growing AI demand. As an initial step towards this goal, the government will invest over $20 million to enhance AI Practitioner training for students over three years, including an increase in the number of AI-related SG Digital Scholarships for Singaporeans to pursue AI and related undergraduate, masters, and PhD courses in top universities, and facilitate access to overseas internships in AI-related roles. These scholarships will allow students to work in the industry after graduation, while the internships will provide students with opportunities to gain industry exposure and apply their knowledge and skills to solve real-world problems. This is in addition to the ramping up of our Continuous Education and Training programmes under our TeSA initiative to provide pathways for mid-careerists to transit to AI jobs. Refer to Annex C for more details.

Enabler 2: Industry

On the industry front, MCI announced at COS 2023 that it would be developing a Digital Enterprise Blueprint (DEB) to chart the next bound of enterprise digitalisation in Singapore, including catalysing enterprise experimentation and innovation with emerging technologies like AI (Refer to Media Factsheet: 2 of 4 for more details).

Currently, for enterprises that are ready to experiment with and deploy more advanced digital solutions, the government has put in place enablers to support them. Various initiatives have been developed to make Generative AI (GenAI) more accessible to SMEs to unlock productivity gains. For example, enterprises looking to experiment with GenAI can gain experience with curated GenAI solutions on the GenAI Sandbox for SMEs.

For enterprises that are digitally more mature, IMDA has launched the Generative AI x Digital Leaders initiative to provide them with access to GenAI expertise and resources to better understand GenAI and further build their capabilities to implement customised GenAI applications with tech partners to meet their business needs. Refer to Annex D for more details of this initiative.

Enabler 3: Compute

Alongside programmes to prepare our people to reap benefits from AI, infrastructure must be put in place to power our AI activities. Specifically, Singapore needs reliable access to high-performance compute to facilitate AI innovation.

To achieve this goal, an investment of up to $500 million will go towards availing high-performance compute to support AI innovation and capability building for a start, and catalyse further investments by industry. Refer to Annex E for more details.

Enabler 4: Trusted Environment

To enable AI adoption, we must develop a trusted environment in which there are effective safeguards to protect against the potential misuse of AI, and to ensure the technology is developed and deployed in a safe, trustworthy, and responsible manner.

To this end, the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) has finalised its Advisory Guidelines on the use of Personal Data in AI Recommendation and Decision Systems, and published it on 1 Mar 2024. Refer to Annex F for more details of these guidelines.

Additionally, the PDPC also recognises that beyond such Traditional AI systems, the rise of Generative technologies also brings about new risks relating to the use of personal data. In this regard, the PDPC is also reviewing how to give guidance on the use of personal data in the context of training or as input in Generative AI applications.

Annex A

AI Visiting Professorship launched to attract world-class AI researchers

Top AI research talent isin high demand internationally and are very mobile. However, they are critical in helping to boost our AI research ecosystem by drawing in other researchers and companies to work with them. Hence, MCI-SN has launched a new AI Visiting Professorship to attract top AI researchers to collaborate with Singapore. We are targeting to award a pilot batch of five AI Visiting Professors over the next few years.

To support capability transfer, AI Visiting Professors will be required to spend at least 20% of their time on the collaboration. They will also need to identify a Singapore collaborator to anchor their activities here and will be encouraged to supervise junior researchers and students here. The goal is for these AI Visiting Professors to drive research aligned with our national AI research agenda, provide increased training opportunities for local students, and catalyse additional research activities in Singapore.

Annex B

AI Accelerated Masters Programme launched in collaboration with local universities to build up pipeline of Singaporean AI researchers

The AI Accelerated Masters Programme (AMP) is a strategic investment by the government to addressthe growing need for AI researchers. The objective is to build up a pipeline of Singaporean research talent and prepare our students to either take on industry AI research jobs or enhance their competitiveness for AI PhD programmes. The AMP will only be open to Singaporeans, and we intend to support 50 students over the next three years. Applications for the AMP are expected to open from March to May 2024, with further details to be released shortly.

The AMP works by condensing the Masters by Research (MbR) degree training from the traditional 2-year duration to 1-year. This is achieved by overlapping the training period with the final year of undergraduate study, allowing students to commence the Masters programme in their fourth year of undergraduate study. Students who subsequently wish to pursue a PhD with their same institution can take another two years to do so.

Annex C

IMDA invests over $20 million over three years to enhance AI practitioner training for students, including scholarships and overseas internships in AI-related roles

IMDA is investing over $20 million over three years to enhance AI practitioner training for students, including an increase in the number of AI-related SG Digital Scholarships (undergraduate, masters, and PhD) and access to overseas internships in AI-related roles. The scholarships to be awarded are part of the SG Digital Scholarship, and ringfenced to support students with a passion to pursue a career in AI and allow these students to work in the industry after graduation. The scholarship focuses on developing future leaders for Singapore and is only awarded to top young talent based on merit. We will continue to monitor the industry needs and will increase the number of scholarships to award, if necessary.

Upon completion of studies, scholars have the flexibility to pursue their AI career pathways in an organisation and industry of their choice in Singapore. Scholars can access additional funding for developing industry-ready skills beyond their core curriculum, such as overseas internships and exchange programmes, and industry courses or certifications. Scholars also enjoy exclusive invitations to industry events, mentorships, and networking opportunities to prepare them for future career success. These opportunities will allow students to gain exposure to build novel AI use-cases and solutions with the aim of applying these learnings in Singapore’s AI ecosystem.

Applicants for the SG Digital Scholarship must be Singapore Citizens and meet selection criteria, including having good academic and Co-Curricular Activity records and they must be studying in AI or related courses. Applications for the SG Digital Scholarship will be open till 14 April 2024 for undergraduates and 31 March 2024 for postgraduates. Interested applicants may visit this link to apply.

Other initiatives to triple Singapore’s AI Practitioner pipeline to 15,000

The TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA) initiative will be scaled up to support fresh and mid-career professionals who have the aptitude and attitude to work in AI.

Since 2016, IMDA has placed and trained more than 17,000 locals in in-demand tech areas such as AI and Analytics, Software & Applications, 5G, Cloud and Cybersecurity, and further upskilled 231,000 individuals in tech.

We will now expand and extend the Company-Led Training (CLT) programme with companies who are scaling up their AI practitioner teams and building Centres of Excellence across sectors. To do so, we will work with them to provide locals with industry-relevant training and hands-on experience through real world projects and use cases.

We will also work with intermediaries like tech giants and Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) to train more locals through apprenticeship models.

IMDA, together with sectoral agencies, will also empower the broader workforce to navigate an AI-enabled future. To help companies and workers, the sectoral Jobs Transformation Map (JTM) will identify job roles that are most affected by key technologies, including AI.

Over the next three years, IMDA is targeting to reskill about 18,000 tech professionals in AI and Analytics with an emphasis on Generative AI and two other in-demand areas – Software Engineering, Cloud and Mobility - which are complementary to AI. These are tech areas that the Information and Communications (I&C) JTM has identified as having a transformative impact on the I&C workforce. To do so, IMDA is working with five Training Partners to scale reskilling and upskilling efforts in AI and Analytics. The Training Partners are National University of Singapore (NUS), Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP), NTUC LearningHub (NTUC LHub), Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) and a consortium formed by Temasek Polytechnic-Republic Polytechnic-Generation Singapore (TP-RP-Gen). Currently, they offer over 180 AI-related courses tapping on cutting-edge tools to provide workers with skills for real-world applications.

IMDA has also been working with partner agencies such as SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) and Workforce Singapore (WSG), as well as industry associations such as SGTech and Singapore Computer Society (SCS), to help companies equip workers with the skills to work with AI.

Annex D

IMDA launches Generative AI x Digital Leaders initiative to provide businesses access to GenAI expertise and resources

Generative AI (GenAI) is a technology with potential to disrupt industries and transform enterprises, enabling them to achieve better operational efficiency, derive new revenue streams, as well as innovate new products and business models. Although more digitally mature enterprises are willing and able, and have in-house tech capabilities, they are hesitant to deploy GenAI as the tech is nascent and rapidly developing and requires them to have the knowledge and know-how to better understand its possibilities and challenges.

The Generative AI x Digital Leaders initiative aims to help such digitally mature enterprises to raise their understanding of GenAI and provide them with access to GenAI expertise and resources to develop and implement GenAI solutions with tech partners. Enterprises will go through a tech discovery process that would help them identify and develop use cases and scope impactful projects. As enterprises proceed towards implementation with the support of tech partners, they will get advisory and guidance on the technology and best practices on AI governance. Grant support will be available for eligible enterprises, to help defray some of the risk as early adopters. This builds confidence and the enterprises’ ability to execute GenAI solutions and accelerate the deployment of GenAI technologies.

This initiative is aligned with the goals of NAIS 2.0 in helping to uplift the AI capabilities of enterprises in Singapore, enabling them to reap the benefits of AI and contribute to the Singapore’s technological advancement.

For more details on the initiative, please refer to this link.

Annex E

Singapore invests up to $500 million into securing high-performance compute resources for AI innovation and capability building

The increasing scale and proliferation of AI models have driven exponential growth in demand for chips that can support AI workloads (i.e. compute), such as Graphics Processing Units (GPUs).

To support high value AI activities, MCI will be investing up to $500 million to avail high performance compute resources, including but not limited to the acquisition of GPUs and supporting infrastructure.

We expect these resources to:

Support use cases in sectors such as transport and logistics, healthcare, and financial services.
Spur further innovation and capability building within our AI ecosystem, and catalyse investments in compute by industry players. This will be done through uncovering impactful use cases, unlocking proprietary datasets, and leveraging on the corporates’ domain knowledge. Done well, this will generate new value beyond productivity moves and experiments and will inform companies’ strategies moving forward.

We recognise that the AI space is fast evolving, and we expect constant advancements in both chip design and compute delivery.

In view of this broader operating landscape, we will take an agile and multi-faceted approach towards availing access to compute, which may include but is not limited to:

Leasing from external providers that offer AI compute as a service.
Siting AI compute within facilities owned by the government or research partners.

To this end, we will deepen our substantive partnerships with major compute players from chipmakers to cloud service providers, to secure sufficient access to compute for our evolving needs. We will share more details when ready.

Annex F

PDPC publishes finalised Advisory Guidelines on the use of Personal Data in AI Recommendation and Decision Systems

Businesses today collect personal data as part of their business operations but may face uncertainty as to whether such data can be used to develop AI systems, which may hamper their willingness to undertake AI innovation. The Advisory Guidelines are intended to give certainty to businesses over circumstances in which the PDPA allows them to use personal data for trusted AI innovation, without having to re-seek consent. This will save businesses time and money, while helping them obtain access to more data for AI innovation.

Businesses either develop AI applications in-house or outsource application development to third-party developers, who may take on the role of data intermediaries. The Advisory Guidelines also clarify how these third-party developers should protect the personal data that businesses supply to them for AI system development, and how they can support businesses deploying these AI systems in their compliance with the PDPA.

The Advisory Guidelines also provide consumers with assurance that their personal data is used by AI systems in appropriate ways which are consistent with organisations’ obligations under the PDPA. For instance, the Advisory Guidelines encourage businesses to be more transparent when seeking consent for personal data use, including through disclosure and notification. It also encourages businesses to share information about the safeguards and practices which they have put in place to ensure that AI systems are trustworthy, which can provide consumers with confidence over how their personal data is being used in AI systems to make decisions or recommendations about them.

PDPC has been developing these Advisory Guidelines through closed and open consultations through 2023. These guidelines have been finalised and will be published on 1 Mar 2024.

For media clarifications, contact:

Adam Osman
Senior Manager, Media Relations
Ministry of Communications and Information
HP: 9152 0163
Adam_Osman@mci.gov.sg