However Singapore, a small Southeast Asian country with a population of 5.45 million people, has long expressed big ambitions to be at the forefront of global technological innovation, including AI.
With support from partners Google Cloud, Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI), Digital Industry Singapore (DISG), Smart Nation Group (SNG) and Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG), the country will launch a local support initiative in July 2023 Launched the first Trail Blazers initiative. Organizations identify real-world challenges that can be addressed with generative AI.
AI Pioneer 2.0
Singapore was one of the first countries to introduce a national AI strategy.As part of a plan set out by Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong last year, the country is acting to triple its talent pool of AI experts. Up to 15,000 people, including machine learning scientists and engineers.
Singapore is also preparing to host AI Trailblazers 2.0, the second of its kind initiative to foster a vibrant ecosystem of AI startups and help build a sustainable pipeline of AI talent. Masu.
Since its founding, Trailblazers has worked on more than 100 GenAI use cases from 84 organizations in government and industry. Building on this progress, at the latest ExploreAI summit held at Google’s Asia Pacific campus, a group of leaders spotlighted 43 organizations that have successfully built their own GenAI solutions, with 22 We continue to refine the solution before graduating from this initiative.
Currently in the works, AI Trailblazers 2.0 will be tasked with helping up to 150 more organizations in Singapore quickly build GenAI solutions that address real-world challenges. This round will provide participating organizations with access to Singapore’s first GenAI Innovation Sandbox. This will give participants access to Google Cloud’s unified AI stack, which consists of the Vertex AI Platform, underlying models, low-code developers, and infrastructure optimized for high-performance AI. Use the tools to assemble your own production-ready GenAI solution.
“We believe the goal of implementing GenAI should be to increase each person’s effectiveness in their role by a percentage,” Mark Micallef, managing director of Google Cloud Southeast Asia, told ERP Today. Ta. “By using GenAI to relieve him of 20-25 percent of the grunt work of a particular individual, we increase his productivity. If we do this at scale, we can see how much more we can produce as an economy and society. Imagine if your sexuality would improve.”
Micallef also believes that GenAI will help automate routine tasks and some non-routine cognitive tasks, thereby increasing labor productivity, creating new jobs, and democratizing access to high-paying jobs. It expresses our collective hope. It creates a ladder of opportunity for workers of all backgrounds,” he added.
Google Cloud is the Singapore government’s partner of choice to advance GenAI adoption across the public and private sectors. This is thanks to Google Cloud’s AI-optimized infrastructure, resource-efficient supercomputing chips purpose-built to process GenAI workloads, located in our cloud datacenters in Singapore. Vertex AI also provides an end-to-end AI development platform for organizations to responsibly build and deploy their GenAI solutions.
Philbert Gomez, Vice President and Head of Digital Industries Singapore, said the AI Trailblazers initiative has already increased the development and adoption of GenAI among Singapore-based businesses.
“These efforts will contribute to Singapore’s ambitions to become a hub for AI innovation. Following the success of our first AI Trailblazers initiative, we look forward to continuing our partnership with Google Cloud and are proud to support AI Trailblazers. We will be announcing more details about 2.0 soon,” said Gomez.
Fostering an ecosystem of AI startups
As part of its National AI Strategy in 2019, the country invested in AI to transform its economy, with around 150 teams working on research and development established and 900 startups exploring new areas. For the first time, we set out an AI ambition focused on deepening the use of AI. Ideas using AI. Since then, the country has made great strides in this area. Government-funded projects in areas such as healthcare, education, safety and security – commitOver $350 milliono AI research and development.
Predictive and analytical AI is now being deployed across Singapore’s public services, including adaptive learning systems in schools, chronic health management systems in hospitals, immigration and customs, and online fraud detection and prevention. More than 80 AI research departments and 1,100 AI startups are also headquartered in the country.
To complement these remaining efforts, Google Cloud and EnterpriseSG recently launched a first-of-its-kind public-private startup program aimed at developing and supporting globally-minded innovators with GenAI at its core. Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First Singapore has been launched. Technology for building products. The program aims to incubate 100 high-potential AI startups over the next three years and expand the reach of their products to new markets.
“As the adoption of AI technology gains momentum, it is important for Singapore to foster a thriving AI ecosystem with startups that can push the boundaries of this sector through innovation,” said Soh, Deputy CEO of EnterpriseSG. Leng Wan said. “Our AI ecosystem also serves to provide AI expertise to drive growth and capacity for the broader industry.”
As part of the program, scheduled to begin in April 2024, selected startups will receive technology and resources to rapidly develop and commercialize their own products using GenAI.
Resources available to help them include up to $350,000 in Google Cloud credits upon graduation from the program, mentorship and technical project support from Google’s product development teams, and the ability to demonstrate their work to potential investors. This includes opportunities to connect with others. Day.
Building a young pool of AI talent
To quickly respond to the growing demand for AI skills, Google is also expanding Google Career Certificate scholarships to an additional 3,000 people for local sales partners, bringing the total to 13,000, with a focus on upskilling mid-career professionals. announced that it will provide scholarships to
Google Cloud is also collaborating with educators from Singapore Institute of Technology Education (ITE), Nanyang Technological University (NYP), and Temasek University of Technology (TP) to improve their cloud technology curricula by Google Cloud Computing Foundations. complemented by value-added programs. GenAI’s introductory microlearning course.
This approach to building local GenAI knowledge is not strictly individual. This means that the same strategy could potentially be applied to all countries other than Singapore. “What we have achieved in collaboration with the Singapore government over the past eight months is now a blueprint for our work in other Southeast Asian markets. Malaysia and Thailand” says Micallef.
With these efforts, Singapore is pursuing its AI goals with full force and is poised to position itself as a key player in the AI industry. Do you have any bets on which country will follow suit next?