NCS opens AI Mission Centre in Ang Mo Kio, to triple embedded AI engineers to over 300

Mr Liew said some companies face challenges in adopting AI, such as legacy systems or inconsistent data.

TURNING AI STRATEGY INTO ACTION

Speaking at the launch, Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo said Singapore must build upon its foundations in the AI domain and not give up any edge it has grown over the years.

Mrs Teo said any country or city can produce a national or municipal AI strategy with little difficulty. “ChatGPT can do it for you,” she said.

The harder task, she said, is to have “a real bias for action” and to build what is real.

She listed several things that count. The first is infrastructure, including data centres, pipelines and mobile networks that can carry the traffic, as well as computing power. These are “hard things” that cannot be avoided, she said.

The second is enterprises with the capabilities, energy, drive and ambition to use AI. Some will fail at it, she said, but they learn valuable lessons that help them succeed the next time.

The third is people with skills, and the jobs being created as the technology develops.

The fourth is policies and programmes that give impetus and support. She cited Singapore’s decision more than a decade ago to go cloud-first, which seeded a wider movement to the cloud. 

The government has now committed to using AI and agents in public service delivery, while ensuring that its people are properly skilled for those roles, she said.