Minister Josephine Teo's Remarks at TBI panel on Global Leadership in an Age of AI Opportunities

MINISTER FOR DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT AND INFORMATION MRS JOSEPHINE TEO’S PANEL DISCUSSION “GLOBAL LEADERSHIP IN AN AGE OF AI OPPORTUNITIES” AT TONY BLAIR INSTITUTE OF GLOBAL CHANGE ON 9 FEBRUARY 2025

Question: In Singapore, we have certainly learned a lot about adoption and technology. From your perspective, how is Singapore thinking about this revolution and thinking about how AI will drive change in your country?

Minister: Thank you very much, Benedict (referring to Mr Benedict Macon-Cooney, Chief Policy Strategy, Tony Blair Institute of Global Change). It was in 2019 when we first put up a set of strategies to see our own aspirations in AI. Because the landscape has changed so much in less than five years, we found ourselves in the position of wanting to update the strategies. In the early part of 2023, we made the assessment that a point of reflection had been reached.

Certainly, in the private sector, you could see the acceleration of AI adoption. This was going to happen globally as well as in Singapore. So, the idea was that we would actively support its adoption and facilitate its smooth implementation. What we thought had a need for greater attention was whether AI was also being put to use for the public. Can you use it to improve the lives of citizens in a very direct and tangible way? That was what we thought needed additional attention. The other point that was also becoming more prominent was that both the opportunities and challenges demanded greater international cooperation.

So, with that sort of thinking as a backdrop, we decided to challenge ourselves to realise the vision of AI for the Public Good for Singapore and the world. And if I were to unpack it, what that means, essentially, is in three areas.

The first is: Can we develop good use cases for the public sector, and also in terms of how they would benefit the public indirectly? So tomorrow at the summit, I think there are two of types of government innovations that will be showcased. One is how we are using generative AI to identify scams and to do a better job at law enforcement. Another one has to do with how we are creating virtual assistants that will address public queries in a more effective manner. But I should add that it is not just government agencies, products and services that we are looking at. There are also other types of public good use cases. For example, in transport, how we move from corrective maintenance to preventive maintenance and to predictive maintenance? It has always been a challenge and it is the Holy Grail. But how do you actually get it done? AI is very good in healthcare. There have been rounds of government budgets benefitting our citizens so that they can live better. Can we do a better job of implementing precision? AI is potentially also very helpful in these outcomes. So that is the first area.

The second area: I would say, is that we do want to develop a robust approach towards AI safety. Actually, this is an area that we believe is not in conflict in trying to bring about greater innovation. If you can create an environment where AI can be trusted and people do not feel the risks that they are very concerned about, such as loss of control, loss of human oversight, labour market distortions and disruptions, and whether the risks of biases can be adequately addressed. Then, there could potentially be stronger support for AI implementation. So, developing not just robust frameworks, but also a testing ability is something that we want to focus on.

Thirdly, I would just say that it is a commitment to share best practices. We will learn and we will make mistakes. The mistakes that we make, not everybody has to go through them. And that is why we are very pleased to have worked with Rwanda to create a playbook for AI that is applicable to small states. In all of these ways, we hope that we can help more countries to advance together in AI adoption.

Question: Minister Josephine, in your perspective, what do you think of the prospects are for international collaboration against the risk that Teresa (referring to Teresa Carlson, Founding President, General Catalyst Institute) is talking about with patients becoming now a bit more nationalistic around assistive technology?

Minister: If you look at how we always approach opportunities in technology, our starting point is to have to have a deeper understanding of the whole value chain, and then identify where your country is going to be the most effective in competing. So if I can use the analogy of aviation in Singapore, we do not own aircraft technology and it has not prevented us from developing a vibrant air hub. And out of the vibrant air hub, you can have very reasonable maintenance, repair and overall activities. You can have a reasonable range of manufacturing activities that are suitable for your own context. In our case, not a very low-cost operating environment, but one that will respect intellectual property. So that is the sort of the environment where you can still find something that is meaningful and can be done within your own context.

I think if we adopted that approach, then international cooperation makes sense. It goes back to the fundamental understanding about how countries will have their own competitive advantage, and that they are going to be better off cooperating than assuming that everything has to be done within their own jurisdiction. We have held fast to the belief and we hope that calm minds will prevail, and then that you can return to this way of thinking. We recognise that in the current context, there is concern about national security, sovereignty, and long-term competitive positioning of countries. Those are not unreasonable. You have to think about building up your capabilities. But ultimately, you still have to accept that there is more to be gained by working together than always seeking to host the entire value chain. I think that is that is the kind of thinking that perhaps a smaller country like Singapore is able to accept quite readily. Maybe not everyone is going to be able to think like us, but we hope to be able to persuade more of our friends to continue to think like that.

Question: Very quickfire question – what do you think will be the opportunities this summer?

Minister: I am very curious whether 2025 will turn out to be the year of the two major recalculations. The first one has to do with the cost benefit of AI adoption. The second recalculation that might happen this year is how we are going to approach the question of data centres, how we can meet a certain estimation of the global requirements. But because it was so expensive to get all of this infrastructure built, then there was a lot of incentive for make it far more resource-efficient. And using energy from a sustainability centre, that is really good. But actually I think it can be very good for business too. So I am looking at 2025 and thinking that maybe this is the year with the two major recalculations.