Speech by SMS Janil Puthucheary at BEACON 2024 Conference

Keynote Speech by SMS Janil Puthucheary BEACON 2024 Conference 23 November 2024

Good afternoon,

1. Glad to see everyone gathered here today for the second iteration of the BEACON conference.

2. I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with better.sg for some time, and the first product that I was familiar with was a tool called ToBeYou. I run a charity called OnePeople.sg, and ToBeYou was something that better.sg worked with OnePeople.sg on – to develop a gamified approach towards understanding how people from different backgrounds and life trajectories are feeling about certain issues. We used it as a teaching tool, and today, about three years later, we continue to use it.

3. I am very pleased that I have had personal experience of how such a product was used by a social impact organisation to develop training programmes to engage new audiences and to move into new spaces, to multiply the work done by OnePeople.sg.

4. The community, and the work that has been happening in this space, have grown from strength to strength. The size of the audience today also speaks for that.

Using technology for good helps build our confidence in its potential

5. The use of technology for good will be one of the significant calls to action of our time, especially here in Singapore, where technology has become a natural part of our lives. Most of what we think of as a normal day and a normal use of technology, would have seemed extraordinary five years ago, and continue to be seen as extraordinary in many parts of the world today. The culmination of internet penetration and the use of technology to transform our society has progressed to the point that much of what we see has become normal.

6. It means that our efforts for engaging with social good, our efforts in reaching every last person in Singapore who needs assistance, will naturally involve technology in some way or the other. This is an opportunity for us all to get involved, especially those who are familiar with technology, like this audience. We hope that this is a call to action that you and all your friends will respond to.

a. There are new discoveries and applications, and there are transformative benefits that technology promises. Other than volunteers, it enables our government agencies to serve our citizens better, and it empowers our workers and businesses. It helps us as a people to be more productive, and it also increases our social connections, such as connecting us with friends and loved ones thousands of miles away. Sometimes our friends and loved ones live just next door, but we don’t see them, so we will WhatsApp them on a daily basis.

b. But we know that these advantages may not be felt in equal measure by all segments of our society. We have made significant strides to digitalise. But some people struggle to keep up with the pace of change, especially our seniors. The other group that is very concerned about what is happening with our technology developments, and the pace of change (of digitalisation), are those whose jobs may be affected. They are worried about their livelihoods and their future. You train for something, you develop a business, you have a career. What is it going to be like 10 years from now? Because what is happening today is very different from 10 years ago. We need to make sure that the change is not seen as a disruptive force, but instead, as a transformative, productive force.

c. In parallel, as we increasingly live our lives online, the discourse online can potentially become increasingly polarised. The need for a cohesive society is something all of us as Singaporeans should internalise. We see the benefits of that cohesion, and what we have been able to achieve. What happens online can very easily pull (us) in the opposite direction.

d. Technology can also change us and affect us as an individual, posing risks to us. There has been a lot of commentary that excessive screen time can disrupt healthy development in young children. It is not just about what is on your screen. What are the interactions that you have? Young people may encounter cyber bullying. They may struggle with issues such as social isolation. Adults can fall prey to scams that exploit personal data and manipulate trust. Online harms like the abuse of intimate images can also cause real mental or even physical trauma.

7. Even as we progress as a Smart Nation, some Singaporeans may feel that technology is leaving them behind. We have to understand this, and we have to do something about it.

a. Edelman’s 2024 Trust Barometer found that 57% of Singaporean respondents are concerned that technology is changing too quickly and in ways that do not benefit them.

b. We will not be able to, as a society, harness the potential of technology if our people cannot embrace it with confidence, and if they feel like they are compromising their well-being and safety.

c. I had the pleasure of meeting several teams who demonstrated their products earlier – to help people with mental health, to check for scams, and to help find government schemes. Nobody questions that in order to benefit from these initiatives, people have to use their phones to access applications. That trust is something we ride on to do good. In order to do the many good things that you, your organisations, and your voluntary welfare teams want to do, you need users to have confidence in your platform, and trust that they will get the help that they need and want from your product or platform.

d. We have to therefore be a society where we use technology for good, rather than just push for digitalisation. Technology is a force for good. The audience here knows this.

Smart Nation 2.0 – Creating a thriving digital future for all

8. Over the course of this conference, you would have heard some of the panelists speak about using technology to improve citizens’ quality of life. Some are using AI to strengthen our healthcare system. Others have built products, such as schemes.sg, to help vulnerable Singaporeans find public assistance more easily. There are many more examples.

9. Technology for good is not just a tagline. It is about taking action for people, and for causes in the community that you care about. It is about serving society and supporting our fellow Singaporeans. It is putting in the work and collaborating with others to bring ideas to reality. This is at the heart of our Smart Nation 2.0 vision.

10. This idea of collaboration, bringing together people – this is at the heart of the work we do, whether in government, in any business, or in your volunteer community. It is at the heart of our Smart Nation 2.0 vision; bringing people together to deliver on this idea of technology.

11. You would have heard about the refreshed Smart Nation 2.0 vision, which was launched by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on 1 Oct.

a. This year marks the tenth anniversary of Smart Nation. In the past 10 years, we centred our efforts on encouraging the use of technology. Now we have reached the stage where people are almost always using technology. The next few decades must focus on helping people thrive with technology.

b. Digitalisation is here to stay. It is not about how to digitalise more. We should ask, what is the kind of society and nation that we want to be, and what is the qualitative shift that we need to think about? How do we shape digital developments in the kind of society that we want to be.

12. Our vision has three goals. These will guide our efforts in the next bound of our Smart Nation journey:

a. The first is Trust, because Singaporeans must be able to go online and use technology with confidence.

b. The second is Growth. Growth can mean different things to different people. It is not just about economic growth, but also personal growth, because technology must be harnessed to empower our people and enterprises to excel. We will have to understand the opportunities and challenges of the future, and grow to be able to meet those challenges.

c. The third is Community. Technology must bring our communities together and strengthen our society. We have to design our products and platforms, and work with our communities, to bring us together.

13. Smart Nation 2.0 builds on many initiatives that are already underway, across the Government and within the community. But digital issues evolve very quickly—there will be new issues and new gaps that we need to tackle.

14. The government does not have a monopoly of good ideas or good products. The challenges and opportunities ahead of us need to be tackled by all Singaporeans together. In the Government, we will not have all the resources, ideas, and the solutions that we need to address these challenges.

15. That is why we want to bring others on this journey with us, bring together communities like yours, not just to uncover more problems, but more importantly, to work on coming up with solutions together.

a. One example of this, which I was very excited about during the demo earlier, is Checkmate.sg. It aims to “fight scams and misinformation, one message at a time”. It does this through a crowdsourced fact checking WhatsApp bot. You simply send the text or screenshot to the chatbot, and it helps you to identify if the content is a scam or contains misinformation.

b. A simple idea, yet powerful when implemented, Checkmate.sg contributes to our efforts in building a Smart Nation – using technology to give people confidence, keeping our people safe within the digital space, and making the digital space something that they can Trust – one message at a time. There is an AI component, as well as a human component – which is to involve volunteers as checkers. Volunteers can get badges for helping to fact check information. This is almost like a combination of gamifying and crowd sourcing, to help people deal with scams and misinformation, which then builds trust and confidence.

c. There are many more examples of such ground-up community-driven initiatives. Together, they exemplify the spirit of our Smart Nation vision of a thriving digital future for all with Singaporeans as fellow ‘builders’ to shape our systems and solutions together.

Partnering to realise our Smart Nation 2.0 vision

16. As we work towards this vision, we have also identified two key aspects to bring our vision to life. What can we as the government do to support these community efforts? First, we must empower our citizens with skills and raise their digital quotient so that more Singaporeans can effectively use technology for their own growth and participate online with confidence and discernment.

17. For this, we have a robust training infrastructure in place to help our citizens learn, upskill, and reskill. This includes programmes like IMDA’s TechSkills Accelerator and the SkillsFuture for Digital Workplace 2.0. These initiatives help our citizens to keep pace with technological advancements and seize opportunities in the digital economy.

18. But we know that technology shapes our lives from an early age, so equipping our children with the knowledge and skills to use technology creatively, confidently, and responsibly is crucial.

a. We recently updated the Code for Fun programme. This programme introduces coding to children, and will have “AI For Fun” modules for primary and secondary school students.

b. Starting in 2025, these modules will provide our students with more opportunities for hands-on exploration and tinkering with AI while equipping them with the skills to use the latest technology in an ethical way.

19. As we do all these, our industry partners are important. They play a critical role in helping us to empower Singaporeans with digital skills.

a. This year, better.sg and Meta partnered to launch the AI/ML-for-Good Mentorship initiative that aims to empower a new generation of change makers by providing mentorship opportunities for students intending to enter the AI and Machine Learning (ML) field.

b. To take this further, better.sg and Meta will be expanding the scope of the mentorship programme to offer AI/ML training and development to social impact organisations. The expanded programme will also implement impactful projects that aim to integrate AI/ML solutions within social impact organisations, to enhance their reach and effectiveness in various aspects, such as volunteer engagement and beneficiary support.

c. In support of this broader mission, The Majurity Trust will be coming on board the AI/ML-for-Good programme as a key partner. Today, I am pleased to announce that better.sg and Majurity will be signing a Memorandum of Understanding to formalise this partnership. Majurity will be working with better.sg to identify social impact organisations under Majurity’s network to participate in the programme, enabling them to harness the benefits of AI/ML technologies.

20. These collaborations are critical as we work together to shape a thriving digital future for all. This brings me to the second aspect of the work that we have to do — the importance of strengthening partnerships amongst the public, private, and people sectors.

21. We have been collaborating closely with stakeholders from the public and private sectors to tackle complex issues, ensuring that key products and services are accessible.

a. For example, GovTech organises an annual A11y week. This focuses on promoting digital inclusion. Just this year, GovTech introduced a new event at A11y week called Co-Creation Lab.

b. Recognising that digital services are provided by both public and private sector players, the Co-Creation Lab brought together representatives from the government and industry, including our major banks and technology companies such as DBS and Grab.

c. The participants come together, and engaged in extensive discussions to better understand accessibility-related challenges. They hear directly from the citizens and end-users, especially our seniors and persons with disabilities. We have deep, granular knowledge from people within the space, and these people with the technological skills are given a platform and the opportunity to make sure that their solutions are tightly matched to the needs and challenges of the client base.

22. We want to foster a culture of co-creation amongst citizens. This requires us to empower and nurture more citizens like yourselves.

a. Our efforts here include programmes like Build for Good, a citizen engagement programme organised by GovTech’s Open Government Products.

b. (Build for Good) provides citizens with mentorship, training, and resources to build and scale products that solve issues in the community. Such efforts of bringing citizens into the space to collaborate with the government engineers with the contextual skills and capabilities, can result in grand (and) interesting ideas, and digital solutions to tackle various issues, such as sustainability-related issues. Among many examples is a platform to better coordinate coastal cleanups.

Conclusion

23. Thank you very much for your commitment to this journey. I am excited to see many creative solutions and innovative ideas that will emerge. Some may scale up, and even become household names. All of this will (help us) build a future where technology serves as a force for good, to drive positive change and enrich the lives of fellow Singaporeans. Thank you.