Closing Remarks by MOS Jasmin Lau at Future Re:Wired

Good afternoon, everyone!

I just wanted to say thank you for spending the time here, discovering more about the technology, but also about yourselves.

I am excited to be here with all of you at Future Re:Wired, the inaugural youth track of SWITCH.

The first time I encountered SWITCH, it was about bringing together business leaders to talk about technology and innovation. It’s been about five or six years since I’ve been at SWITCH, and it’s fantastic to see that we are engaging a lot more youths than we did before.

Now, with this new youth track, we are opening the doors to more young people, who are eager to dive into the world of technology. You are our next generation of tech leaders, entrepreneurs, and thinkers. I am very encouraged to see so many of you here today.

For those in my generation, we remember the shift from analogue to the digital age. But many of you grew up in a completely different environment – technology has been there since you were born. Technologies like the Internet, search engines, and social media have transformed how we live, and will continue to do so. These technologies will continue to reshape our industries , and the AI revolution is not going to be the last one that we will see.

Today, all of you are here thinking about AI as a new wave that is going to hit all of us. The truth is, it’s already part of our everyday lives, and will continue to remain there as such. Many of you are already using AI tools like ChatGPT to help with writing, summarising information, and creating images for both play and work. But what’s exciting is that AI’s potential is still being explored today, and new uses for it are emerging every day.

We have been talking about developing some framework around AI literacy, but we are fearful of doing it, partly because the technology is not stagnant. It is still evolving very fast, and we are concerned that once we lock our own view about AI, we will not be able to see what is coming.

Some of you may feel excited about the possibilities that AI brings, but many of you feel worried that AI may affect your job opportunities in the future. These feelings are natural. But I want to reassure you that AI will bring to us many new opportunities.

AI skills are no longer optional. They are very essential, no matter which career path you choose to take, whether in technology, healthcare, finance, even social work or creative industries - knowing how to work with AI will set you apart from the rest.

To support you in building these skills, IMDA, along with SkillsFuture Singapore, is expanding the SkillsFuture Digital Workplace 2.0 program to include AI training. With this program, anyone - even those without any technical background, can learn how to use AI tools.

But learning the basics is not enough. Learning how to prompt is not enough. To really make an impact, you must strive to become fluent in AI and be able to apply it in your specific field. Now, this means that you do need to pick a field and become familiar enough with it to apply AI into it.

Think of AI as learning a second language. Being fluent in both AI and your chosen field will be key to creating meaningful solutions in the future.

While AI is an incredible tool, and part of my job is to convince Singapore and Singaporeans how exciting AI can be – my own fear is that it will start to replace us and our brains, the way we think and behave towards each other. We often say that AI should enhance and not replace our own thinking. But, working in the Ministry of Education, I worry because students are starting to use AI to think and do on their behalf.

Research shows that constantly turning to AI for answers can lead to your brain “stagnating", not developing further and can affect your ability to think and respond as you grow older. It will affect your attention spans, reduce your capacity for memory and make us more passive in our thinking. It will make us lazier if you're not careful, because it's so much easier just to ask AI for answers to everything.

My message to all of you is to continue to challenge yourself to solve problems, create new ideas, and think deeply, without naturally stretching to use AI from the get go.

Another area that I have been concerned about is how AI will affect the way we talk and relate to each other. Please do not lose sight of the importance of human connections.

I want to share with you a story. When I first got to know my volunteer team, there was a young man who would talk to me on WhatsApp. He didn’t really want to talk to me in person, and would say that he was quite busy. He would talk to me on WhatsApp, but every time he sends me a message, it would be very well crafted. It didn’t sound like conversational language. After a few interactions, I realised he was putting his text messages through ChatGPT, before he sends it. The issue behind that is the fear and losing confidence in talking to someone. We laugh about it as though it wouldn’t happen to us, but it is already happening in our society.

It is harder to engage with humans personally and directly, because you have to deal with emotions and body language. You have to guess how people feel and respond, but that's the real beauty of being a human. It trains you to relate to colleagues and friends – AI should not take that away from us.

If you have a chance to have a chat with a friend, a heart-to-heart talk with a mentor, or maybe a performance appraisal with your boss – take it up, use those minutes meaningfully and connect with each other. The real connections and communication efforts that we make, will shape our society and make us stronger.

We also see a lot of bullying happen in schools. In the future with AI, perhaps six months to a year – we will start to see AI appear as a form of bullying. It will be used to some extent. You can imagine how you can use deepfakes of people and put words into their mouth. We have to be very careful of that. No amount of policy or laws can guard against all of it. You have to get to know all of your classmates and friends as humans, and then you will be a lot more mindful about the emotions that each of us have.

The future of Singapore is in all of your hands. As youths, you are going to build the future for all of us, and we see so much potential in all of you. That's why we've put together the SG Youth Plan. We want to work with young people from all walks of life to create a five-year action plan that supports your growth and helps you become the best version of yourself.

Since last November, more than 50,000 youths and stakeholders have shared their views on what matters most to them, from career readiness to the opportunities available to shape their future. You will be the first generation to build entire careers alongside AI, and I am confident that you will show us all how to harness this technology meaningfully to create new opportunities.

I am excited to see the innovative AI solutions you’ve come up with to tackle the challenges in our industries. And beyond today, I look forward to see how you will use technology for good to build a better society together.

Thank you once again for being part of Future Re:Wired. I look forward to see the incredible things that all of you will do in the future.