Artificial Intelligence will touch new grounds in Singapore, as the country launched a national programme last week to build capabilities for AI. Through this move, the government plans to concentrate in the areas of healthcare, finance, and city management solutions.
The programme will receive a SGD150 million investment to achieve a target of developing 100 AI projects, which would solve real world problems. National Research Foundation will delimit the funds over five years, into this programme, named AI.SG.
AI.SG will be managed by several government agencies, including the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office, Infocomm Media Development Authority, and Integrated Health Information Systems. Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Communications and Information, Singapore comments at the tech conference Innovfest, “AI.SG will do three primary things – first, address major challenges that affect society and industry, secondly, invest in deep capabilities to catch the next wave of scientific innovation, and finally, grow AI innovation and adoption within companies.”
From a societal perspective, the programme will touch upon some of the most critical challenges, such as healthcare issues with an ageing population, or improving traffic management during peak hour. Furthermore, the program will also invest towards growth of deep technologies, such as next-generation AI systems reflecting human-like learning abilities.
Additionally, Ibrahim revealed plans regarding setting up the Singapore Data Science Consortium. This will help the country deepen its research in data science, besides driving industry adoption in this arena. The Consortium will serve as the primary platform Singapore, helping companies access the latest technologies in data science. Besides, the move will link companies with research institutions, so that they can tap on their expertise to create solutions using data science. “AI and data science are key frontier technologies that the Singapore Government will harness and build capabilities in,” concludes Ibrahim.
