The U.S. and China, the world’s largest and second-largest economies respectively, are at present the world leaders in A.I. analysis. Each superpowers additionally boast extra firms and capital than anybody else.
However maybe measurement doesn’t matter, and smaller international locations like Singapore can hold tempo within the race to undertake AI, specialists mentioned Tuesday at Fortune’s Brainstorm AI Singapore convention.
“It’s fairly clear from the outset {that a} nation like Singapore might by no means compete with China and the U.S. by way of scale,” mentioned Simon Chesterman, vice provost on the Nationwide College of Singapore and a senior director at AI Singapore, a corporation that goals to construct an AI ecosystem within the Southeast Asia nation.
However “if you happen to can’t beat them on amount, you possibly can at the very least attempt to compete on high quality,” Chesterman mentioned, arguing that international locations have to “make a advantage of your small measurement.”
Singapore is the third-highest financial system on Tortoise Media’s international AI index, behind simply China and the U.S. and forward of bigger economies like Germany and Japan.
The nation’s core pillars are “infrastructure, expertise and adoption,” mentioned Serena Cesareo, a senior researcher on the London-based information group.
By way of land space, Singapore is smaller than New York Metropolis, and its measurement might assist the federal government roll out its AI technique extra successfully.
That compactness might help “make industries extra aggressive, ship authorities companies higher, and assist residents perceive and work together with [AI] expertise in a manner that builds confidence and belief,” mentioned Andrea Phua, senior director of the nationwide AI group in Singapore’s Ministry of Digital Improvement and Data.
It’s not about “utilizing AI for AI’s sake,” she mentioned, however as a substitute about utilizing it correctly, making Singaporean firms and folks comfy with utilizing AI functions, and in flip promote innovation.
A method AI functions get higher is by getting extra customers–and in flip getting extra information.
Singapore’s focus is getting all the workforce–not simply machine studying engineers and information scientists–comfy with AI, Shameek Kundu, a member of the Singapore authorities’s AI advisory council, mentioned. He cited the Singapore Academy of Legislation, and its recommendation to legal professionals on the right way to use generative AI, for instance.
Chesterman defined AI’s not simply in regards to the information, the computational energy, or the {hardware}, but it surely’s additionally about investing within the expertise to benefit from AI developments.
He in contrast AI to earlier technological revolutions like electrical energy. “Not everybody must be an electrician, however it’s essential know the right way to develop instruments that may use electrical energy, or apply electrical energy in new methods,” Chesterman mentioned.
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