SINGAPORE - Artificial intelligence (AI) development will get a boost with the signing of a new memorandum of cooperation between Singapore and Britain to enhance the safety and reliability of AI technology in its development and use.
Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo signed the agreement with British Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Peter Kyle in London on Nov 6.
Mrs Teo is on a working visit to Britain until Nov 7.
The agreement will strengthen cooperation between the AI safety institutes of both countries in areas such as research, information sharing and comprehensive AI testing.
“We are committed to realising our vision of AI for the Public Good for Singapore and the world. The signing of this new memorandum of cooperation with our important partner, the United Kingdom, builds on existing areas of common interest and extends them to new opportunities in AI,” Mrs Teo said.
She and Mr Kyle also discussed other areas of mutual interest and cooperation, such as online safety, cyber security and digital government.
The Ministry of Digital Development and Information said the agreement is in line with the commitments made by the two countries at the AI Safety Summit held in Britain a year ago and builds on the UK-Singapore Digital Economy Agreement signed in 2022.
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Mrs Teo, who is also Second Minister for Home Affairs, will also sign a memorandum of understanding on security cooperation with Britain’s Home Office during her visit.
She also attended the Future of AI summit organised by the Financial Times newspaper, where she gave an interview about Singapore’s approach to AI.
Mrs Teo revealed that more than 65,000 civil servants are using a secure version of ChatGPT in their daily work for tasks such as transcribing meetings.
She also noted that a platform enabling government officials to design and build their own AI bots has already seen several thousand such bots built.
From Singapore’s perspective, the development and use of AI should be practical, with thought going into how organisations can benefit from investments in this area, she noted.
Businesses need to be convinced, for instance, that they will benefit from making investments in AI.
“You’ve got to constantly be thinking about, in what way is it helping you to grow markets? In what way is it helping you to reduce costs?” she said.
Mrs Teo added that the Government continues to be watchful against the misuse of AI and is agile to respond to new developments, citing a recent law passed by Parliament to ban the use of deepfakes and other digitally manipulated content of election candidates.
The new law prohibits the publication of online content that realistically depicts a candidate saying or doing something that he did not and includes misinformation generated using AI, or deepfakes, and content made using non-AI techniques.
She added that existing laws can already be applied to certain forms of misuse. Current workplace discrimination laws, for instance, would prohibit any potential discrimination against candidates in the hiring process, including through the use of AI.