SINGAPORE: The national digital strategy is being refreshed under Singapore’s Smart Nation 2.0 plan to keep up with changing needs in an ever-evolving landscape.

Plans include a new agency on online harms, a S$120 million (US$90 million) investment in artificial intelligence for science, and fellowships for educators to teach AI better in schools.

Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo sits down with CNA’s Glenda Chong in a wide-ranging interview on the country's digital transformation.

Q. Why the need to refresh Singapore's Smart Nation vision now?

It has been 10 years since we started the smart nation journey, and from a technology standpoint, the landscape is certainly very different.

On a day-to-day basis, digital technologies have permeated our lives. For example, e-payments were not a norm but today, they are readily available even at hawker centres.

So, we are looking at the landscape of the future, and there are many opportunities if we play our cards right. At the same time, as so much of our lives is carried out with the support of technology, there are also occasions when tech fails and disappoints us.

The question is: what can we do about that? With these considerations in mind, we thought that it was timely to refresh the Smart Nation plan and identify some of the important areas that we should be focusing on.

Q. How can Singaporeans be encouraged to participate in the digital transformation?

When people are given opportunities to acquire digital skills, we find that they are generally responsive.

Take our Seniors Go Digital programme, for example. When I interacted with a group of seniors, one told me she uses an app to check the weather to decide whether to bring in the laundry before leaving home. Another said she uses an app to book hospital appointments. Another said he goes online to check if his son has given him his monthly allowance.

So, when technology is used in a way that citizens feel it improves their level of convenience, then … they are not being forced to learn to use digital tools … rather, technology (has been useful) for them.

That is generally the approach we try to take: There has to be a practical usefulness to the technology, rather than just adopting technology or using a digital tool for the sake of it.

Q. How is the government protecting Singaporeans from online harms?

We have a law that deals with fake news and misinformation, a law against hostile information campaigns that could be carried out against Singapore, a law that deals with harms such as online criminal activities, etc.

(There are plans to do more.) For a start, we're looking at cyber bullying and intimate image abuse. The feedback that we get from users is that these two types of harms are the most prevalent. Once we set up the agency and are able to enforce upon these kinds of harms effectively, then there is room for us to look at other types of harms. But this process, this building up of capabilities, is something that will take time.

Q. Tell us about the S$120 million investment in AI for Science initiative.

Since we launched the National AI Strategy 2.0, there have been so many enthusiastic users of AI to improve company processes. This gives us a sense that the AI ecosystem is shaping up quite nicely.

We think there is opportunity for the research community to benefit from AI advances. If researchers could use AI tools, then the quality of their research, the speed at which they could potentially discover new, important knowledge that would be useful to humankind, would go up a great deal. We are interested in getting the research community access to AI tools.

Q. How will this position Singapore globally?

When I travel internationally, I am very pleasantly surprised at the high regard colleagues around the world have for Singapore. They think of us as having made very good use of technology to boost the competitiveness of our industries … and to improve citizens’ lives.

I would say we have very solid foundations, and it would be a real pity if we do not build on it fully to enable us to go further. From that perspective, the Smart Nation 2.0 plan gives us a chance to position Singapore more strongly for the future.

Q. What is Singapore’s competitive advantage in the AI for Science initiative?

For scientific research, there is always the competitive as well as the collaborative dimension. Being able to use AI for scientific discovery is a valuable contribution to this process, (including) collaboration with researchers elsewhere in the world.

In Singapore, I think we have the ability to get ourselves better organised. For example, in terms of making compute resources available to researchers, that is a bottleneck many countries are trying to break. We should be able to do that better.

The ability to access good quality data is just as important. This is where we hope to continue to grow in strength and to enable our researchers to do more because of the access to good quality data.

Q. Tell us about the Smart Nation Educator Fellowship that will help shape the national curriculum.

When looking at how we can equip the next generation of Singaporeans for this digital future – especially one where AI enabled tools will be so much a part of their working lives – we identified that at the heart of the education system are our teachers.

The intention is to create a programme that enables teachers to immerse themselves in an environment where they can see how technology is coming to life. Teachers will get exposure to … international conferences, talk to (industry experts) … and have a much better sense of what needs to go into the students’ education process so that they can be best prepared when they graduate and enter the workforce. Then these educators can design the (curriculum) to meet the challenges of the future.

The idea is to train the trainers. Once we have a group of teachers with this experience, then they can find ways of sharing it with their colleagues. In this processlucky card, every teacher potentially could be enabled.

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