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SINGAPORE \u2013 Anxieties about artificial intelligence dominated the debate last week on Singapore\u2019s Budget 2026, which outlined <\/p>\n a national push to adopt the technology<\/p>\n <\/a> across all segments of society. <\/p>\n The push received cross-party support as no MP from the ruling party or opposition Workers\u2019 Party argued against it. <\/p>\n But many lawmakers fleshed out scenarios where various segments of Singapore\u2019s workers could be left behind or made unemployed by AI adoption.<\/p>\n Some raised concerns that AI would automate away jobs traditionally done by fresh graduates, creating a \u201cbroken rung\u201d in work experience, while others said they were concerned about mid-career workers whose jobs might also see competition from the technology. <\/p>\n All in all, MPs covered almost every segment of society and raised fears that they could lose out in the coming AI push, as well as concerns about AI\u2019s possible environmental impacts. <\/p>\n Their fears are well founded and reflect a deep and growing global anxiety surrounding the technology.<\/p>\n There is still a lack of worldwide consensus on whether the technology will actually improve lives, although local statistics on worker displacement in Singapore have not yet raised alarms.<\/p>\n On Feb 23, a day before the debate began, a post on newsletter platform Substack went viral for its depiction of a doomsday dystopia caused by artificial intelligence. It triggered stock sell-offs of some of the companies it named, contributing to a small dip in the US\u2019 S&P 500 Index that day. <\/p>\n The authors from Citrini Research had modelled a scenario where unchecked proliferation of AI across the US economy would cause rampant unemployment by 2028 while continuing to grow the economy overall and creating what the authors called \u201cghost GDP (gross domestic product)\u201d, or economic growth with no actual people involved.<\/p>\n The thought experiment also envisioned a collapse of real wage growth and white-collar workers being replaced by machines and forced into lower-paying roles.<\/p>\n While various tech and finance leaders later came out to say it was overblown and alarmist, the uncertainty around AI adoption\u2019s possible outcomes persists.<\/p>\n Singapore\u2019s latest \u2013 and broadest \u2013 AI push remains, at this point, something of a gamble.<\/p>\n It entails the Government establishing <\/p>\n a new National AI Council<\/p>\n <\/a>, company tax breaks for AI adoption and a new AI hub, as well as measures to help individual workers learn AI skills, like six months of free premium AI tools for those on related courses. <\/p>\n But the Government has argued that it is a bet that Singapore cannot afford to pass up now.<\/p>\n Still, MPs\u2019 fears prompted Prime Minister Lawrence Wong to offer guard rails around this bet. <\/p>\n Wrapping up the debate, he promised that widespread AI adoption will not result in jobless growth \u2013 the first and perhaps most important principle in how the Government will seek to shape the technology\u2019s adoption. <\/p>\n He also agreed to three calls from the National Trades Union Congress: to empower every worker to be \u201cAI-ready\u201d; to strengthen support and safeguards for workers; and to strengthen the labour movement\u2019s ability to protect and uplift professionals, managers and engineers.<\/p>\n The size of these promises cannot be overstated, and \u2013 depending on how they take shape \u2013 could present more interventions in the labour market. <\/p>\n PM Wong has in the past expressed a willingness to address the failures of the free market in creating good jobs with more state intervention. <\/p>\n In October, as he launched a scheme to <\/p>\n link residents to jobs near them<\/p>\n <\/a>, he said that even as Singapore forges on with economic transformation, the creation of good jobs and effective job matching cannot be left entirely to market forces. <\/p>\n The PAP has also over the last 11 years shown that it is willing to adopt targeted interventions in sectors where wages are depressed, and implemented the Progressive Wage Model, which mandates that lower-wage workers in some sectors advance to new wage bands as they hit productivity and upskilling targets. <\/p>\n His promise may mean that further interventions to \u201cstrengthen support and safeguard workers\u201d could be on the table, if widespread displacements from AI do emerge. <\/p>\n It is too early now to say what shape some of these interventions could take, but what several backbenchers have asked for could offer a glimpse. <\/p>\n Labour chief Ng Chee Meng and other labour MPs during the debate called for tweaks to the Jobseeker Support Scheme, which gives involuntarily unemployed people up to $6,000 a month for six months.<\/p>\n They asked for the scheme\u2019s income ceiling of $5,000 to be pegged to the median wage for many white-collar workers, which was $7,600 in 2025. <\/p>\n PM Wong said the scheme is only a year old and the Government will study its outcomes before making a decision, but did not close the door on their suggestions. <\/p>\n Moves in this vein could represent a shift in how the Government will deal with the labour market in the age of AI and the ruling party\u2019s thinking about the value of a free market, at least in this arena. <\/p>\n This could have implications for party politics, depending on if and how it comes to pass. It could shrink the political space for WP, which has long differentiated itself from PAP by calling for more redistributive measures and denouncing the ruling party for an over-reliance on the free market at the expense of Singaporean workers. <\/p>\n But a promise is not yet policy and any interventions are, at least for a start, unlikely to go beyond the established playbook of investing in skills and working closely with businesses to ensure these skills are recognised. <\/p>\n PM Wong, in agreeing with the labour movement\u2019s calls, said the Government will invest \u201cmore deliberately and more systematically in our people\u201d.<\/p>\n He also said the Government will pay close attention to how companies apply AI, and \u201cguide them to use AI to enhance human skills and expertise\u201d.<\/p>\n