\n<\/p>\n
On navigating the growing US-China rivalry, Dr Balakrishnan said during the dialogue that this is a “peculiarly sensitive existential point”, and maintaining trust with both powers is vital to Singapore.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “The key challenge for us is to maintain trust with both the United States and China, not as a vassal state, not as a tributary state, but as a small but hopefully relevant and useful partner,” said Dr Balakrishnan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He said that the US remains important to Singapore as a source of foreign investment and technology, as well as a key market for goods and services.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On China, Dr Balakrishnan pointed to Singapore\u2019s deep linguistic, cultural and historical links with the country, noting that 74 per cent of Singapore\u2019s population is of Chinese ancestry.<\/span><\/p>\n “As far as we can do so, we will refuse to choose because the moment you choose, in fact, you’ve lost strategic options,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n Dr Balakrishnan added that Singapore also would not want to be in a position where either superpower could use the country as a proxy or a lever.<\/span><\/p>\n “My preferred option is to maintain a clear, steady, principled, consistent position, so that whatever they do, if I have to say no, we have to say no to you because we’ve done our own calculations of what’s in our enlightened long-term national interest.”<\/span><\/p>\n Asked by Mr Ditizio what the collective rejection of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz would mean in practice, and whether it would change how Singapore views regional energy security, Dr Balakrishnan stressed the importance of protecting the right of passage through international waterways.<\/span><\/p>\n The right of transit passage for vessels and aircraft through international straits is safeguarded under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).<\/span><\/p>\n He noted that about 40 per cent of global trade passes through the Strait of Malacca and subsequently the Singapore Strait, with Singapore deriving significant economic value from providing services to vessels and trade passing through these waterways.<\/span><\/p>\n “This is absolutely crucial for us. When we look at the Straits of Hormuz, even without taking sides, any full-frontal assault on this regime of the right of transit passage for ships and aircraft over straits used for international navigation is a full-frontal threat to our business model.”<\/span><\/p>\n Dr Balakrishnan, who\u00a0<\/span>had experimented with building his own AI agents using open-source tools, spoke about the risks posed by the technology.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “I have spent enough time building, interacting and using agents to tell you that we have a real problem,” he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Anyone who tells you I’ve got absolute control over my autonomous agent and I know exactly everything it’s going to do or not do, obviously doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Loss of control is a real threat.”<\/span><\/p>\n As such, rogue state and non-state actors could use the technology to develop new weapons of mass destruction, including in chemistry and biology, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n Dr Balakrishnan\u2019s statement echoed recent warnings by other leaders as well as chief executives of AI-related companies about the risks posed by AI to humanity.<\/p>\n Anthropic, the company behind frontier AI model Claude, submitted US bourse filings that advanced AI could pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity” last month.<\/p>\n Leaders from Anthropic, OpenAI and HuggingFace on Sep 23 briefed the United Nations (UN) Security Council that increasingly powerful AI systems could soon improve themselves, slip beyond human control and pose a threat to international security.<\/p>\n“LOSS OF CONTROL IS A REAL THREAT”<\/h2>\n