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Singapore: Launch of two new national AI programmes for government and financial sectors

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In brief

On 8 November 2021, the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO) announced the launch of two national artificial intelligence (AI) programmes for the government and financial sectors.

In more detail

National AI Programme in Government

This programme aims to advance the government’s digital transformation efforts further, including enhancing the use of AI in policymaking, the provision of more personalised and responsive services, and the optimisation of government processes.

Some examples include:

  • “Jumpstart”, an AI-enabled platform with recommendation engines to complement career coaches and offer jobseekers more personalised and effective jobs and skills recommendations
  • “Video Analytics System”, to support public agencies in the development and deployment of video analytics models

National AI Programme in Finance

Similarly, the National AI Programme in Finance aims to establish Singapore as a global hub for researching, developing and deploying AI solutions for the financial sector, with one of the key focus areas being sustainable finance.

Some examples include:

  • NovA!, an AI platform for financial risk insights generation to help financial institutions assess companies’ environmental impact and identify emerging environmental risks
  • Veratas, an AI governance framework and tool kit, to help financial institutions responsibly utilise AI

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is also developing a data and information sharing platform known as COSMIC (Collaborative Sharing of Money Laundering / Terrorism Financing Information and Cases) for financial institutions to share information on customers or transactions that cross material risk thresholds, and leverage AI to identify and disrupt illicit networks.

These new programmes are part of the Singapore government’s National AI Strategy, which comprises projects in key sectors aimed at catalysing AI adoption.

For more information, please view SNDGO’s press release here and the MAS’s press release here.

Key takeaways

The launch of these programmes is a positive step towards ensuring that AI systems are deployed responsibly and facilitating public-private data sharing to enable more sophisticated uses of AI.

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Andy Leck is the managing principal of Baker McKenzie.Wong & Leow. Mr. Leck is recognised by the world’s leading industry and legal publications as a leader in his field. Asian Legal Business notes that he “always gives good, quick advice, [is] client-focused and has strong technical knowledge for his areas of practice”. Alongside his current role as managing principal, Mr. Leck has held several leadership positions in the Firm and externally as a leading IP practitioner. He currently serves on the International Trademark Association's Board of Directors and is a member of the Singapore Copyright Tribunal.

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Ren Jun is an associate principal of Baker & McKenzie.Wong & Leow. Ren Jun extensively represents local and international intellectual property-intensive clients in both contentious and non-contentious IP matters, such as anti-counterfeiting; civil and criminal litigation; commercial issues; regulatory clearance; and advertising laws. Ren Jun also advises on a wide range of issues relating to the healthcare industries. These include regulatory compliance in respect of drugs, medical devices, clinical trials, health supplements and cosmetics; product liability and recall; and anti-corruption. Ren Jun is currently a member of the Firm's Asia Pacific Healthcare ASEAN Economic Community; Product Liability and Regulatory Sub-Committees.

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Arwen is a local principal in the Firm's Intellectual Property and Technology (IPTech) Practice Group in Singapore. She is a member of the Law Society of Scotland, and has been admitted to practice in Scotland since 2004. Arwen worked as an intellectual property and technology lawyer in the UK and Europe before relocating to Asia in 2014 and has since worked in both Singapore and Hong Kong, advising on matters across both Asia Pacific and Europe. Arwen is recognised in Legal 500 (2020) as "commercial, pragmatic and personable" for the TMT sector.

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Abe is a principal in our Singapore office. His main areas of practice include patents, trade secrets, copyright, and transactional IP for international and domestic clients. With over eleven years of legal experience as a lawyer and over ten years of technical experience as an engineer in the US and Canada, Abe is able to provide commercially oriented legal and technology-specific advice on a wide range of IP issues. Before joining our Singapore office in 2016, Abe was a lawyer in our Baker McKenzie offices in the US (where he passed the US patent bar examination and qualified as a US Registered Patent Attorney (limited recognition)) and Thailand.

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