Speech by Minister Josephine Teo at Launch of Prudential’s Global AI Lab in Singapore

Keynote Address by Mrs Josephine Teo, Minister of Digital Development and Information, at Launch of Prudential's Global AI Lab in Singapore

Mr Anil Wadhwani, CEO of Prudential plc

Distinguished Guests

Colleagues and Friends

Good afternoon.

1. It's great to be back at Prudential. I recall visiting about three years ago. It was a very tough time for Singapore. We were still very much in the midst of Covid, and the job market was so bleak at that time. All of us wanted to find a way to bring hope, and the SG United Traineeship Programme was a way for us to allow young graduates to jumpstart their careers. I am glad that a good number of trainees that Prudential took in that time are still with you. It must mean that you all did a great job. I am delighted that this time round, we get to discuss something that is very current, and also has the potential to be groundbreaking - not just for the company, but also for the insurance sector at large.

2. Prudential's launch of its Global AI Lab in Singapore today comes nearly a year after Prime Minister Lawrence Wong launched Singapore's refreshed National AI Strategy, or NAIS2.0.

3. NAIS2.0 articulated the twin goals of excellence and empowerment - for Singapore to develop peaks of AI excellence in specific sectors, including the insurance and financial sectors, while enabling the broadest base of individuals, businesses and communities to use AI with confidence, discernment and trust.

4. One year on, we have seen much progress across the entire AI ecosystem: in Government, Research and Industry.

5. Within Government, AI has been deployed in many meaningful use cases:

a. For example, this year, officers have been creating their own personalised AI bots that draw on customised sets of documents and can respond to their questions almost like experienced colleagues with deep institutional knowledge.

b. The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) is developing an AI-powered triage assistant that helps to accurately record the critical details of an emergency call, thereby improving the speed and quality of response.

c. In our schools, an AI tool called "Simpler" can rephrase sentences and use words that match students' preferred reading levels, helping them to more easily understand complex topics.

d. We are also steadily building up the AI talent pool among public agencies, with dedicated AI teams and numerous experimentation and cross-sharing opportunities.

6. Likewise, the research ecosystem has moved forward in several ways:

a. New research centres have been established. These include the NUS AI Institute, the SIT-NVIDIA Centre for AI and NTU's Centre of AI for Medicine.

b. Our students won two of four gold medals awarded at the inaugural International Olympiad for AI.

c. In October, Prime Minister Wong announced a S$120million "AI for Science" programme to promote inter-disciplinary collaborations and help our researchers push the limits of scientific discovery.

d. Our researchers have published widely at top AI conferences. Soon, Singapore will also be hosting two major conferences for R&D leaders in AI. These are

i. the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) in 2025 - a well-known event within the community of AI experts; and

ii. the Association for the Advancement of AI Conference ("Triple AI") in 2026.

7. In addition to all that is happening within the Government and research communities, I'm personally very encouraged that our industries are also stepping up enthusiastically to make good use of AI, to raise productivity, create value, and be more competitive.

a. There is a growing culture of AI experimentation and innovation. Initiatives such as Google AI Trailblazers have helped to catalyse action by early adopters. We have seen them identify real-world challenges that can be addressed with generative AI, build prototypes and bring these prototypes to production.

b. Companies, start-ups and researchers are coming together to develop AI solutions that address common use-cases and problem statements - with the aim of scaling their successes across the region.

c. For example, A*Star set up the "AI Centre of Excellence for the Manufacturing Sector". It brings together research experts and industry practitioners to develop AI-based solutions in areas ranging from product design and quality assurance, to industrial automation and predictive maintenance. Companies such as Coca Cola and Phillips have signed up to be part of this effort.

d. Local industry champions like SIA and DBS are actively investing in AI development. More companies including Lilly and AvePoint have set up or are setting up AI Centres of Excellence in Singapore, to develop new AI-enabled products and services, as well as transform their own operations.

8. I am happy that Prudential is similarly launching its Centre of Excellence in AI today. This will add to the increasingly vibrant AI ecosystem in Singapore.

9. I understand the AI lab plans to work on exciting problem statements that seek to understand customers better, deliver a better experience for them, and yield meaningful business impact. It is impressive that over the past 3 months, the AI lab has already identified over 100 practical use cases. These include adjudicating claims and answering customer queries with speed and empathy.

10. As a Centre of Excellence, Prudential's success can be a showcase of AI value creation within the finance sector, not just in Singapore but worldwide. That is why I am glad that your AI solutions developed here may be scaled up elsewhere, to impact your operations, services and products across Asia and Africa. This aligns very much with how we see the AI ecosystem in Singapore, as a boost to businesses locally and globally.

11. I can assure you that the Singapore government will continue to support AI innovation with enabling policies, frameworks, and sandboxes. We will, at the same time grow the breadth and depth of AI talent to sustain capability development initiatives such as yours.

12. There is no question that we are excited about the immense promise of AI. Equally, there should be no doubt about our commitment to responsible AI use. It's clear that we are serious about ensuring that AI systems are designed with fairness, transparency and accountability. We believe that businesses developing AI use cases must make every effort to mitigate against risks of bias, protect sensitive personal data, and retain customers' trust. When companies use AI responsibly, they not only create value for customers and shareholders, they also help build public trust in AI. This is essential as the technology is being deployed much more widely.

13. In this regard, we actively pursue international partnerships and contribute where we can.

a. With the US, we have a dialogue on Critical and Emerging Technologies which has allowed us to identify areas of collaboration. AI safety is one of those areas. In fact, as we speak, in San Francisco, there's a meeting of AI Safety Institutes as a network, and Singapore is one of the few countries that are represented at this network.

b. With China, we have a Digital Policy Dialogue that has gotten off to a good start. We are both interested in managing the risks of AI, especially when it comes to content that affects societal harmony and cohesion.

c. Besides the US and China, we worked with ASEAN colleagues on a Guide on AI Governance and Ethics. We also recently signed a new Memorandum of Cooperation with the United Kingdom on AI safety. With Rwanda, we jointly published the AI Playbook for Small States.

14. At the same time, we continue to support businesses in responsible AI development and implementation. We cannot just talk about responsible AI; there must be some way of testing the responsibility of AI systems and to provide frameworks to give assurance to users. Examples include the Infocomm Media Development Authority's Model AI Governance Framework and Project Moonshot, as well as the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore's Guidelines and Companion Guide on Securing AI system. These resources offer pragmatic, easy-to-use guidance for enterprises, covering best practices, risk management, and security considerations. We encourage businesses to make good use of them. At the same time, we are also working with our international counterparts to make these kinds of guides more interoperable, so that companies do not have to always struggle with knowing what standards to meet when they cross borders.

15. On this note, I am heartened that Prudential shares our commitment to AI safety, as it is a member of the AI Verify Foundation. By participating in the Foundation, Prudential is helping to advance efforts to develop global standards and best practices for responsible AI.

16. In closing, I look forward to seeing the meaningful contributions from Prudential's AI Lab. I wish you every success!

17. Thank you.

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