AI Singapore is a national programme in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to catalyse, synergise and boost Singapore’s AI capabilities to power our future, digital economy.
AI Singapore will bring together all Singapore-based research institutions and the vibrant ecosystem of AI start-ups and companies developing AI products, to grow the knowledge, create the tools and develop the talent to power Singapore’s AI efforts. It is driven by a government-wide partnership comprising National Research Foundation (NRF), the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office, the Economic Development Board, the Infocomm Media Development Authority, SGInnovate, and the Integrated Health Information Systems. NRF will invest up to $150 million over five years in AI Singapore.
Objectives
- Use AI to address major challenges that affect society and industry
AI can be used to increase traffic throughput during peak hour, for example, or to address healthcare challenges that are to come with an ageing population. Healthcare is currently both a knowledge and human-touch-intensive industry. Coupled with the progress in the digitisation of Singapore’s healthcare over the years, AI could be significant applicable for safeguarding the health of Singaporeans. AI could play a big role in supporting prevention, diagnosis, treatment plans, medication management, precision medicine and drug creation. Healthcare manpower, augmented with AI tools, could better address increased healthcare demands in the future.
- Invest in deep capabilities to catch the next wave of scientific innovation
These may include next-generation “explainable” AI systems exhibiting more humanlike learning abilities, as well as adjacent technologies such as computing architectures (integrating software, firmware and hardware) and cognitive science. The NRF Fellowship and Investigatorship schemes will be deployed to support such scientific activities. Local talent in AI will also be trained though their involvement in the development of these deep capabilities in AI.
- Broaden adoption and use of AI and machine learning within industry
AI Singapore will work with companies to use AI to raise productivity, create new products, and translate and commercialise solutions from labs to the market. NRF aims to deliver 100 meaningful AI projects and proofs-of-concept to solve real-world problems quickly for end-users. There is particular potential in the sectors of finance, healthcare and city management solutions, which the programme will start with.
Research and Industry Opportunities
Beyond research institutions, AI Singapore will also harness the significant AI capabilities in the industry, whether within AI start-ups or corporate laboratories. AI Singapore will work with these companies and even individual enthusiasts via networking events, hackathons, to use AI to tackle real-world challenges.
AI Singapore will nurture a local community of doers and thinkers in AI through a ‘makerspace’ environment with shared resources and facilities designed to maximise community interaction, collaboration, and encourage adoption of intellectual property generated by AI Singapore. These facilities will comprise AI Singapore software tools and frameworks released under appropriate open source license, anonymised datasets, and world-class AI high-performance computing resources.
Management
AI Singapore will be a national partnership that pulls together Singapore’s AI capabilities. Operations of AI Singapore will be overseen by a Management Committee comprising field experts from all Singapore-based research institutions, key government agencies and industry partners with expertise in AI.
The Management Committee will be helmed by co-chairs, Mr Tan Kok Yam, Deputy Secretary, Smart Nation and Digital Government in the Prime Minister’s Office and Professor Ho Teck Hua, who has been appointed Executive Chairman of AI Singapore, and is also the Deputy President (Research & Technology) and Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professor at the National University of Singapore.
