Speech by DPM and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong at the Launch of Singtel AI Cloud Service

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Introduction

1. Good morning.

2. It is my pleasure to join you all here today at the launch of Singtel’s AI Cloud Service.

Securing compute for Singapore’s AI ambitions

3. Compute is one of the key enablers to drive AI development, deployment and adoption.

a. We recognised when drawing out our National AI Strategy 2.0 that we needed to ensure that Singapore had reliable access to high-performance compute, in order to realise our AI strategy.

b. We had therefore established partnerships with major compute players, ranging from chipmakers to Cloud Service Providers to meet our needs for compute.

c. However, many companies and organisations may not have the capability or scale to develop and deploy AI solutions. We must therefore also develop platforms on which companies can train their AI models as well as run their AI workloads.

4. To this end, Singtel’s AI Cloud Service is a turnkey platform that provides access to compute infrastructure on a development workspace. This will in turn support our NAIS 2.0 efforts.

Supporting the AI ecosystem

AI industry building

5. As a small, resource-constrained country facing an ageing population, our economic growth rests on our ability to overcome our labour and productivity challenges – and in this regard, we believe that AI has the potential to unlock these constraints and drive the next wave of economic growth for Singapore.

a. First, by optimising business processes, AI can help companies do what they are doing better, faster and with less manpower.

b. Second, and perhaps more significantly, AI has the potential to enable companies to do what they were unable to in the past, such as creating new intellectual property, new products or services, or unlock new opportunities in their respective businesses.

6. We are therefore keen to drive the adoption and development of AI-driven solutions among our industries and enterprises.

a. Two weeks ago, I had launched the AI Centre of Excellence for Manufacturing (“AIMfg”), our first sectoral-based Centre of Excellence in AI.

b. By partnering companies in the manufacturing sector, the AIMfg will pool resources and the solutions developed can then be shared across the sector.

c. This will accelerate AI innovation within the manufacturing sector, a key pillar of our economy.

d. I am happy to note that Singtel will be signing a MoU with the A*STAR’s Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC) and the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), as well as with the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and the Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF), to support the AIMfg.

7. In addition to sectoral-based Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in AI such as the AIMfg, we also intend to partner with companies which are ready to grow their AI capabilities, and to set up CoEs in AI.

a. In this regard, I am glad that Singtel will establish strategic partnerships with global AI players such as AlphaSense, H20.ai, Hippocratic.ai and Hive.ai.

b. Through these partnerships, Singtel’s AI Cloud Service and development platform will provide companies with the tools to build AI applications here in Singapore.

i. In particular, Singtel’s low-code and no-code platform will empower non-AI trained individuals to be able to build AI applications. This will benefit companies which may not yet have AI teams based here.

8. Start-ups can also play a catalytic role in driving AI innovation across industry, through prototyping and experimentation. To nurture a pipeline of AI-native start-ups, we have established partnerships with companies such as Google to develop accelerator programmes; these programmes can provide the capital, business and technical expertise, as well as market networks to support and drive the growth of start-ups.

a. In this regard, I am glad that Singtel will be collaborating with Digital Industry Singapore to develop an accelerator programme for AI companies to conduct innovation activities in Singapore.

b. As part of the programme, start-ups can gain access to credits for AI compute resources, as well as go-to-market assistance through various parts of Singtel’s business.

AI R&D

9. Besides a vibrant AI industry, it is also important that we build up a strong community of leading AI scientists and researchers

a. Indeed, one key feature of leading AI hubs such as Silicon Valley, Montreal and Seattle is their rich R&D ecosystems, which in turn sets standards, lead in patents and define the next generation of AI applications.

b. This will in turn generate economic spin-offs, including growth in start-ups, venture capital investments and commercial products.

10. I am therefore glad to note that Singtel will be signing an MoU with the National Supercomputing Centre to explore the establishment of an R&D platform that can facilitate collaboration amongst the scientific community.

a. This platform will allow researchers, scientists and academia to access scalable and cost-effective compute resources for their AI and Machine Learning workloads.

b. It will also avail resources such as AI tools, models, data products and applications to support their AI development efforts.

c. This will complement our efforts to bolster our research capabilities over the years, including the most recent ‘AI for Science’ investment to improve research productivity and advance scientific discovery here in Singapore.

AI talent development

11. Last but not least, we must build up a pool of skilled AI talent to support our AI ambitions. I am glad to note that Singtel will be working with AI Singapore, NUS and NTU to set up an AI Acceleration Academy.

a. Under the proposed Academy, the parties will jointly develop AI-related training and skills development programmes.

b. As a start, the Academy will aim to upskill Singtel’s workforce based in Singapore, totalling more than 10,000 people.

c. This will go some ways to enabling us to achieve our target under the NAIS 2.0 of tripling the AI practitioner pool to 15,000 in the next three to five years.

Conclusion

12. Let me congratulate Singtel once again on the launch of the AI Cloud Service.

13. I hope this will be a catalyst to our efforts to drive AI innovation, development and deployment across the ecosystem, so that we may better harness the potential of AI to capture new opportunities for our businesses, enable our scientific and research community to discover new peaks of excellence, and enable our workers to find better jobs in the digital economy.

14. Thank you.