Opening Remarks by Minister Josephine Teo at Singapore AI Research Week Gala Dinner

Distinguished colleagues and friends,

1. Good evening and thank you all for being here.

2. I want to acknowledge the presence of my Cabinet colleagues, in particular, Acting Minister Jeffrey Siow who looks after Transport.

   1. On top of this heavy responsibility, Jeff was tasked by our Prime Minister to co-chair one of the Economic Strategy Review Committees.

   2. In this capacity, Jeff has strongly supported plans to accelerate AI adoption in enterprises and the workforce.

   3. He will say more in due course, but I’d like to say tonight “thank you, Jeff.”

3. I’d also like to thank the Chairman of our National Research Foundation (NRF), Mr Heng Swee Keat.

   1. Much of my speech tonight will be about the National AI R&D Plan.

   2. This plan is truly a collaboration between the NRF and my Ministry;

      1. Based on our shared belief that excellence in R&D has intrinsic value and benefits society.

   3. We appreciate Swee Keat for always encouraging us to be bolder in our dreams.

   4. With his support, the Plan will be a tangible way to realise our vision of “AI for the public good, for Singapore and the world.”

4. Before I say more about the Plan, allow me to share a bit about my week in Davos, attending the World Economic Forum.

   1. Unsurprisingly, geopolitics took centre stage.

   2. Fortunately, there was sustained interest in technology developments and Singapore’s approach.

5. Less than 48 hours ago, President Tharman and I met Yoshua Bengio.

   1. We discussed what it would mean to have responsible AI, and how this could be achieved.

   2. Some of you may know that Yoshua, alongside other global experts, led the 2025 Singapore Conference on AI (SCAI): International Scientific Exchange on AI Safety.

      1. This was held in conjunction with the inaugural Singapore AI Research Week;

      2. And resulted in the Singapore Consensus on Global AI Safety Research Priorities.

   3. We are assessing the need for a second edition of the Exchange, and what would make it useful.

6. The day before that, I caught up with Demis Hassabis.

   1. A little over a year ago, Demis met Prime Minister Lawrence Wong while visiting Singapore.

   2. Last year, Google DeepMind decided to grow a presence here.

   3. They have started hiring and the team is filling out well.

   4. My team is working with them to identify impactful collaborations.

7. I also caught up with Yann LeCun, who as you know, has set up a new venture since leaving Meta.

   1. Yann explained his roadmap and how Singapore features in it.

   2. I will leave it to him to say more when he is ready, but it is very exciting to me.

8. The most surreal event for me was, however, sitting onstage next to John Martinis, a 2025 Nobel Prize Winner for Physics.

   1. As the only government person on the panel, I tried my best to explain to the capacity crowd why quantum technology matters to a country like Singapore, and the growing ecosystem here.

   2. Imagine my pleasant surprise when John exclaimed that his startup would be collaborating with Singapore.

   3. That startup is Qolab, whose mission is to develop large superconducting quantum computers.

   4. John said he hopes to leverage Singapore’s expertise in semiconductor manufacturing to build specific components of Qolab’s quantum computers.

9. I share this with you as context for the increasingly vibrant ecosystem for deep tech in Singapore.

   1. There are of course many more snapshots I could give to provide a fuller picture.

   2. In the interest of time, I invite you to visit the exhibits at the back of that room to find out more about some of our ongoing initiatives.

10. It is against such a backdrop that we have put together our National AI R&D Plan.

    1. To implement this Plan, Singapore will commit more than S$1 billion to fund public research in AI over five years, from 2025 to 2030.

    2. We will do so in three main areas: Fundamental AI, Applied AI, and Talent Development.

    3. Let me outline our thinking in each area.

11. Despite extraordinary breakthroughs, there are fundamental limitations in AI development.

    1. For example, AI training and inference remain extremely resource intensive. Their draw on energy and water cannot be ignored.

12. Singapore already has one of the most densest concentrations of data centre capacity in the region.

    1. We are providing headroom for up to 50% growth.

    2. Given our commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, this expansion must be carefully managed.

13. This is where research into resource-efficient AI can complement our Green Data Centre Roadmap, and yield strategic value.

    1. We aim to find new ways to gain efficiency across the tech stack – from chip architectures to model and application design.

    2. Achieving success will not only benefit ourselves, but others with similar constraints.

14. This vision is inspired by how we dealt with our water constraint – an existential risk for Singapore.

    1. Research over many decades helped build our water resilience, including to reclaim wastewater – into what we call NEWater.

    2. Today, Singapore is internationally recognised as a model city for integrated water management and an emerging global “hydrohub.”

    3. Solutions by some of our local companies can now be found elsewhere.

       1. For example, in Cambodia, Indonesia and Nepal, portable water filters developed by a Singapore company, Wateroam, are being used for emergency response and humanitarian relief.

15. Besides resource efficiency, there are other fundamental challenges that we hope to address, such as responsible AI.

16. In areas we have prioritised, we will establish AI Research Centres of Excellence, hosted in our public research institutions.

    1. These Centres will comprise teams of researchers – established as well as upcoming individuals – focused on long-term, difficult questions.

    2. We expect them to partner actively with others in our local ecosystem and internationally.

    3. We also want their research discoveries to be shared openly, to contribute to the global knowledge commons.

17. In fact, this is already happening.

    1. Our universities are ranked amongst the top in AI, globally.

    2. They account for a commendable share of papers at major AI conferences, such as NeurIPS, ICLR, and AAAI, the last of which is happening this week in Singapore.

    3. They also partner many tech companies in Singapore, including Google, IBM, Nvidia, and Microsoft Research Asia.

18. I am confident these AI Research Centres of Excellence will add greater breadth and depth to our ecosystem.

19. At the same time, we will complement research in fundamental AI challenges with applied AI research.

20. Jewel at Changi Airport, where we are tonight, is a relevant example.

    1. This striking glass dome that houses a vibrant lifestyle hub and the world’s tallest indoor waterfall was in fact borne out of necessity.

    2. Terminal One, where the Changi story first began, had gotten just too busy.

21. But rather than a simple extension on top of a giant car park, Jewel was imagined as a world-class destination in its own right, with many energy saving features.

22. Changi Airport’s innovations do not stop there. It now uses AI to optimise operations:

    1. From aircraft turnarounds and security screening;

    2. To automated baggage handling;

    3. And the use of robots for inspections and cleaning.

23. That has meant growing in-house product and engineering teams, and creating new solutions with the help of partners, like:

    1. The Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD);

    2. The Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART); and

    3. The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

24. Similar efforts can be found in the more than 60 Centres of Excellence set up by leading corporations in Singapore, to apply AI-enabled solutions to everyday problems.

    1. At the same time, scientists in other research domains – such as Manufacturing, Health, and Sustainability – are enhancing their capabilities to develop and deploy industry applications.

    2. Government agencies, such as GovTech and the Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX), are equally challenging themselves to be leaders and not laggards in AI use.

25. To further strengthen our applied AI research capabilities:

    1. The updated National AI R&D Plan aims to nurture “bilingual research talents” who are proficient in AI and have domain expertise.

    2. We aim also to build core AI engineering capabilities for the translation of theory to systems and applications.

26. We have good foundations to work off.

    1. Over the past decade, AI Singapore, a national programme, has helped hundreds of organisations use AI through its “100 Experiments” programme.

    2. A*STAR’s sectoral AI Centre of Excellence for Manufacturing has worked with multinationals and local companies on industry-wide use-cases;

       1. Such as in quality assurance, predictive maintenance, product design and industrial automation.

    3. AI Singapore and A*STAR have also developed the SEA-LION and MERaLiON families of open-source language models, respectively.

       1. These models are representatives of Southeast Asia’s languages and cultures – there are more than a thousand languages in Southeast Asia.

       2. It is therefore no surprise that they have attracted many users.

27. Let me turn now to our plans for talent development.

28. Singaporean AI scientists and researchers have been doing us proud.

    1. Take Dr Yi Tay, who obtained his Bachelor’s and PhD from NTU. Today, he is a Research Scientist at Google DeepMind Singapore, where he co-leads training of the Gemini models.

    2. We have promising young academics like Assistant Professors Koh Pang Wei, Tan Zhi-Xuan, and Ling Chun Kai, who are adding vibrancy to our AI ecosystem, from home and abroad.

    3. Our youths have also won gold medals at the 2024 and 2025 International Olympiad for AI.

    4. We are delighted that they can all be here tonight.

29. We will strengthen our talent base through nurturing AI research expertise at all levels.

    1. We will continue to support our International Olympiad training teams.

    2. We will enhance scholarships and research opportunities for our students, so they will be well-placed for competitive PhD, post-docs, and faculty openings in top institutions.

    3. We are continuing with the AI Visiting Professorship scheme.

       1. Since the scheme was launched , eight Professorships have been awarded to distinguished international researchers, to support their collaborations with local researchers.

       2. The close partnership is proving fruitful in tackling important research questions.

       3. Five of these eight Professors are here tonight.

30. The AI Research Centres of Excellence, which I mentioned earlier, will also be significant platforms for talent development.

    1. In parallel, we will continue to attract top-tier AI startups and tech companies;

    2. To base their research and innovation teams in Singapore.

31. Beyond schemes, mentors play a critical role in nurturing future researchers.

    1. They include the trainers of our Olympiad Teams - Professors Alvin Chan, Liu Ziwei, Luu Anh Tuan, and Wang Wenya from NTU, as well as Mr Koo Seng Meng from AI Singapore.

    2. Our universities’ faculty too provide important mentorship, such as through Professors Bryan Low, Ng See Kiong, and Luke Ong. They spend much of their time guiding and creating opportunities for students to learn from leading AI minds.

    3. Thank you all for tirelessly grooming our next generation of AI leaders.

32. Having updated our plans, naturally, the question becomes “what does success look like?”

33. We believe good outcomes will emerge out of a vibrant, diverse yet close-knit research ecosystem.

34. It is reflected in events like the ongoing Singapore AI Research Week.

    1. This is only the second edition;

    2. Yet the calendar is packed with 40 events, many of them fully subscribed almost instantly.

35. The same energy is felt through the constant buzz at Lorong AI, our collaborative AI hub, which recorded an attendance of over 4,000 participants across 150 events last year.

36. This evening too, we see the close fraternity in everyone gathered here.

    1. Leaders from academia, industry, and government;

    2. Our international partners;

    3. And Singaporeans, based here and abroad, making their marks in the AI field.

37. It seems that in quiet and unseen ways, we are all working together to shape a future where AI can be for the public good, for Singapore and the world.

38. Let’s keep going.