JOHANNESBURG – Amid all the innovation brought about by Artificial Intelligence, a key challenge for governments everywhere is to address concerns about jobs and livelihoods, and help workers adjust, said Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong on Nov 23.
AI is evolving rapidly, with tremendous potential to improve and transform lives, he pointed out, and the world is still in the early stages of the AI journey, one marked by great excitement and massive investments.
Governments should be clear-eyed and look beyond the hype, he said, speaking at a working session with leaders of the world’s biggest economies.
“Our task is to ensure the responsible use of AI and to harness AI’s real and longer-term potential to build a more efficient and responsive government, and to raise productivity across every sector of the economy.
“And this has been Singapore’s approach. We have been systematically harnessing AI applications within our public sector to streamline processes, to strengthen service delivery, and to free up officers to focus on higher-value work.”
The Republic is also supporting businesses to harness AI applications, he noted.
For smaller enterprises, this could be as simple as accessing AI-powered software and tools. For larger companies, it could mean using advanced AI models or even developing in-house models to fundamentally redesign work processes, and to scale up new solutions.
“And that is why Singapore is also creating regulatory sandboxes and test beds where companies can experiment safely, trial new ideas, and bring cutting-edge AI solutions to market more quickly.”
The meeting on the second day of the summit at the Johannesburg Expo Centre centered on building a fair and just future, with discussions anchored around issues of critical minerals, decent work and AI.
