Singapore currently not looking at regulating AI, says IMDA

SINGAPORE: The director for trusted AI and data at Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) said that the country is not looking at regulating AI at the moment, despite calls for AI’s risks to be evaluated.

The government, in a effort to promote the responsible use of AI, had called for firms to work together on AI Verify, the first AI testing toolkit around the globe.

Through AI Verify, which was launched in 2022 as a pilot project. users can conduct technical tests on AI models and record process checks, CNBC reported on June 19 (Monday).

Companies including Singapore Airlines and IBM, which are part of the pilot, have begun testing AI Verify.

IMDA’s Lee Wan Sie told CNBC, “We are currently not looking at regulating AI,” and added that “At this stage, it is quite clear that we want to be able to learn from the industry. We will learn how AI is being used before we decide if more needs to be done from a regulatory front,” and that regulations may be imposed later on.”

She underlined that it’s very important that the Singapore government works together with industry players, other governments, and research organizations, especially because Singapore is a small country that may not have all the answers.

Earlier this month, Ms Josephine Teo, the Minister for Communications and Information acknowledged the risks that AI carries, but added, however, that the government can’t promote AI’s ethical use all by itself.

“The private sector with their expertise can participate meaningfully to achieve these goals with us,” she said at the Asia Tech x Singapore summit, adding that actively steering AI toward beneficial use is “core to how Singapore thinks about AI.”

CNBC noted that elsewhere around the globe, others have sounded the alarm on AI and are regulating its use.

With the recently-passed Artificial Intelligence Act, the EU will be bringing technologies such as ChatGPT under greater regulations, and China has begun drafting regulations as well.

Singapore may be key for developing the technologies further within a safe environment.

“There’s just this consistent approach that we’re seeing around openness and collaboration. Singapore is viewed as a jurisdiction that is a safe place to come and test and roll out your technology with the support of the regulators in a controlled environment,” Ms Stella Cramer, APAC head of international law firm Clifford Chance’s tech group, is quoted in CNBC as saying.

/TISG

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