Singapore Announces New AI Initiatives
- By Paul Mah
- May 31, 2023
At the Google Cloud Singapore Summit 2023 today, Google Cloud, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO), and the Singapore Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) announced various AI-centric initiatives.
These initiatives are designed to deliver AI capabilities to the government, build AI competency, and develop Singapore into an open and trusted hub for AI.
Speaking on stage at the opening keynote, Sherie Ng, the country director of Google Cloud in Singapore, spoke about the impact of AI.
“To us, AI is not just a powerful enabler, it is also driving a very big platform shift, changing our game. Just in recent weeks, we've had a glimpse of how generative AI can unlock productivity, boost our creative juices, and even extend our knowledge,” said Ng.
AI for government
One announcement by SNDGO and Google Cloud entails the launch of the Artificial Intelligence Government Cloud Cluster (AGCC). The AGCC is a comprehensive platform designed to accelerate AI adoption in Singapore’s public sector, advance local research efforts in applied AI, and support the growth of the local AI startup ecosystem.
The AGCC is hosted in a dedicated cloud computing environment in Singapore. It will have AI-optimized infrastructure powered by Nvidia A100 GPUs hosted on Google Cloud.
Through the AGCC, agencies can take advantage of Google Cloud’s enterprise-grade AI technology stack and an extensive partner ecosystem of software-as-a-service companies, consultancies, and AI startups to build and deploy AI applications quickly and securely.
A central repository will be made available for AI practitioners to access pre-trained generative AI models, with integrated features to help them customize these models for specific needs. This will include first-party, third-party, and open-source models built for different tasks.
Importantly, international AI startups that are looking to make their foundation models available to government agencies in Singapore can work with Google Cloud to host these models on the repository.
AGCC in action
From June 2023, government agencies in Singapore can access the AGCC and other accredited Google Cloud services through the Government on Commercial Cloud (GCC) 2.0 platform.
Built by GovTech, the GCC platform provides agencies with a consistent and regulated way to adopt commercial cloud solutions. GCC 2.0 is the second iteration of the platform.
The Government Technology Agency (GovTech) is the first public sector organization in Singapore to leverage the AGCC. Its Open Government Products (OGP) team has integrated with Google Cloud’s Vertex AI and is exploring the use of its models in Pair, which are large language model-powered assistants that civil servants can use to help them boost their productivity.
It is understood that privacy and security safeguards are set in place within Pair to maintain the confidentiality of government information.
Speaking on stage at Google Cloud Summit, Chan Cheow Hoe, the Government chief digital officer at SNDGO, acknowledged the hype around AI, but pointed to its very real impact and how organizations ignore it at their own peril.
Referring to the frenetic pace of AI, Chan quipped: "We are excited; we are also very tired – in this era of AI, nobody talks about next month; they talk about [rolling out a solution] next week.”
Build AI competency
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Google Cloud also announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on generative artificial intelligence (AI) solutions grounded on responsible AI practices.
The partnership will explore technology opportunities to advance the development and use of responsible generative AI applications within MAS, as well as cultivate technologists with deep AI skill sets.
Separately, the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) shared plans to collaborate with Google Cloud to bolster Singapore’s national artificial intelligence (AI) vision and strategy.
Potential focus areas of this strategic partnership will be aimed at supporting the development of home-grown AI technologies, deepening AI capabilities and competencies through skilling initiatives, encouraging the adoption of cloud AI technologies, and the potential operationalization of Responsible AI principles.
AI can shape the public sector’s digital service delivery in profound and meaningful ways, says Ng.
“Beyond providing Singapore government agencies with access to advanced and truly open AI technologies, we look forward to working with GovTech to build a vibrant pool of homegrown talent across a range of AI-related roles in public service, to help advance Singapore’s national strategy for deploying scalable and responsible AI innovations,” she said.
Paul Mah is the editor of DSAITrends. A former system administrator, programmer, and IT lecturer, he enjoys writing both code and prose. You can reach him at [email protected].
Image credit: Google Cloud
Paul Mah
Paul Mah is the editor of DSAITrends, where he report on the latest developments in data science and AI. A former system administrator, programmer, and IT lecturer, he enjoys writing both code and prose.