After unveiling its newly modified National AI Strategy 2.0 (NAIS 2.0), Singapore is reportedly planning to employ 15,000 machine-learning scientists and engineers, as announced by the nation's prime minister Lawrence Wong as reported by Reuters.
The move comes after Singapore announced, as per the Business Times, the nation's aim to scale up AI for compelling use cases in industries including advanced manufacturing, finance, healthcare, education, and public services, as stated by PM Wong during the Singapore Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
To grow the nation's AI talent pool, Channel News Asia states that the government will increase its support of AI use across all businesses. This includes the AI Apprenticeship Program, which is reported to be expanded and revamped.
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A visitor watches an AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign on an animated screen at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry's biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona.
Singapore will also collaborate with industry AI product development teams to increase business relationships while creating focused AI training programs to upskill the workforce utilizing the Industry Transformation Maps and Jobs Transformation Maps.
Simultaneously, Singapore will persist in accepting AI talent from around the world. A specialized group will locate, interact with, and integrate elite AI developers into the regional economy.
According to the government's research, as the same report indicates, this to-be-expanded AI pool of producers and users will come together at a dedicated site that has not yet been revealed to build a close-knit knowledge community needed for artificial intelligence innovation.
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Singapore's National AI Strategy 2.0
The newly modified NAIS 2.0, is reportedly the outcome of in-depth discussions with more than 300 organizations and specialists, both local and foreign.
Over the next three to five years, 15 different courses of action are outlined in the new plan. These include the provision of appropriate carbon funding for data centers, training programs tailored specifically to AI, and a physical area set aside for AI. The plan is meant to drive Singapore's goal of becoming a global leader in the artificial intelligence industry.
Singapore will also enhance access to data and high-performance computing capacity to create a more favorable environment for generating AI value.
In a reported joint press statement, the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) and the Smart Nation Group stated that the government will continuously evaluate the plan to "respond to fast-moving developments in AI across domains."
At a press conference, the organizations unveiled the plan that outlined how the government would "centrally orchestrate" efforts to support AI activity across the economy and society and collaborate with the business community, academics, non-profits, Singaporeans, and other stakeholders to realize the objective of harnessing AI for the common good.
Southeast Asian Technology Hub
Singapore is reportedly to be home to 1,100 AI start-ups, 150 AI R&D and product teams, and more than 80 active AI researchers.
The 5.45 million-person nation in Southeast Asia is also home to the Asian headquarters of major international IT companies like Microsoft and Alphabet, Google's parent company, as per Reuters.
Reuters also report Singapore to account for $2.7 billion of Nvidia's sales for the quarter that ended in October, second only to the United States, China, and Taiwan, citing a corporate filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as the source.
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