S’pore to triple AI talent pool to 15,000 as part of national strategy update: DPM Wong
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 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, 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.
“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 key in all this is to be agile and nimble and to keep updating our strategies and government frameworks as circumstances change.”
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