Leverage on AI to increase accessibility of Government services (PQ Reply by Minister Josephine Teo)

Leverage on Artificial Intelligence technology to increase accessibility of Government services to seniors and individuals who are less technologically savvy

Fourteenth Parliament of Singapore – First Session for the Sitting on 7 February 2023

Question

Miss Rachel Ong asked the Prime Minister whether there are plans to leverage Artificial Intelligence technology similar to ChatGPT to increase accessibility of Government services to seniors and individuals who are less technologically savvy or who find navigating English websites challenging.

Answer

Written answer by Mrs Josephine Teo, Minister for Communications and Information and Minister-in-charge of Smart Nation and Cybersecurity (for the Prime Minister)

It is important to ensure that everyone, including seniors and individuals who face challenges with technology or language barriers, can access and benefit from the digital services provided by the Government. This includes making high-traffic Government websites and e-services more accessible, offering programs like Seniors Go Digital to support seniors in embracing technology, and providing non-digital alternatives.

Beyond this, we regularly review how we can better support less digitally savvy residents. This includes tapping on new and different technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). For example, the Municipal Services Office’s OneService Chatbot using AI enables residents to more conveniently report municipal issues through common social messaging platforms.

ChatGPT is one of the latest developments in this space. It leverages advances in large language models trained on massive amounts of text data and alignment techniques to generate human-like conversational responses on an extremely wide range of tasks. We are carefully studying the potential of adopting such AI technologies to boost digital inclusion, balancing considerations such as cost, reliability and other limitations arising from the technology itself.

The Government is always looking for opportunities to innovate and enhance the lives of citizens, and we will do so in a responsible and safe manner.