Singapore puts AI on the cloud to boost public sector deployment

Singapore has created dedicated cloud resources so that its government agencies can deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications more efficiently and securely.

The Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO) said the cloud cluster has been set up with the aim of driving the adoption of AI in the public sector and supporting research on how AI can be implemented. According to the government agency, it will also support local AI startups.

Too: How to use ChatGPT: Everything you need to know

Called the AI ​​Government Cloud Cluster, the platform runs in a dedicated environment on Google Cloud, where US vendors’ AI technology stacks and partner applications are available for deployment. These resources include the A2 supercomputer running Nvidia’s A100 GPU and a repository of AI models running first and second party as well as open source platforms that government agencies can customize for their specific needs . AI models span multi-language text translation, audio-to-text conversion, and software coding.

The AI ​​Government Cloud cluster also provides builder tools for generative AI applications, which developers with varying coding skillsets and limited technical knowledge can use to build chatbots and search platforms.

Too: Nvidia unveils a new kind of Ethernet for AI

In addition, toolkits are provided to guide government agencies on responsibly deploying AI applications based on explainable AI and data governance principles. These toolkits include mechanisms to incorporate human feedback to improve the performance of AI models, access controls and content moderation, and auditing sources that power AI models, so potential bias can be identified and can be solved. These mechanisms will also ensure that the AI ​​model runs in compliance with the rules.

The AI ​​cluster can be accessed through the Government on Commercial Cloud (GCC) platform, which provides a central infrastructure for local government agencies to deploy commercial cloud services. running on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, GCC is part of a five year roadmap To migrate public sector on-premises IT systems to commercial cloud platforms.

GCC is managed by the Government Technology Agency (GovTech). With the government earmarking SG$1 billion ($742.6 million) for cloud applications in the current financial year, GovTech said it is on track to achieve its target of moving 70% of its systems to the commercial cloud. Currently, 66% of eligible government systems run on the architecture.

Too: AI Ethicist Says Today’s AI Boom Will Exacerbate Social Problems If We Don’t Act Now

The new AI cluster runs on the second iteration of the government’s platform, GCC 2.0, which is integrated with cloud-native capabilities and advanced cloud security practices.

GovTech is one of the first agencies in the region to use an AI cloud cluster, where it is harnessing Google’s machine-learning development management platform, Vertex AI. The agency is also looking into using the big language AI model in Google Duo to improve productivity while maintaining the data privacy of government information.

GovTech and Google will work together to run training programs to help all government agencies build their data science and AI skills, establish AI strategies and adopt data government best practices. The approach is an extension of an existing collaboration to strengthen AI skills within Singapore’s public sector, which includes 150,000 officials across 16 ministries and 50 statutory boards.

The Ministry of Communications and Information has also said that it will work with Google Cloud to drive the country’s AI strategy, including through an AI model marketplace hosted on the cloud platform to develop relevant skills and develop local AI technologies. plan, where local companies can tap into Google. AI models and tools to develop their applications.

Too: AI can automate 25% of all jobs. Here are the ones who are most (and least) at risk

In addition, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is working with Google to identify use cases based on the Responsible AI Guidelines and to jointly build and test Generative AI applications. The local central bank is also looking to boost its technical capabilities in generative AI.

The way MAS uses data has been a key differentiator for Singapore as a global financial hub, said Vincent Loy, MAS assistant managing director for technology, who spoke at the Google Cloud Singapore Summit this week. Loy said data insights have helped the government agency achieve IT operational efficiencies with significant savings in manpower resources, while data analytics and visualization are used to aid network and financial crime investigations.

Noting that competition remains tough and the global landscape is constantly evolving, he said AI will play a key role in Singapore’s march forward.

He added that MAS will use the collaboration with Google to identify generative AI use cases that will allow it to work more efficiently and provide foundational models that prioritize data security and AI governance. “Through this, we hope to inspire greater adoption of responsible generative AI in the financial sector,” said Loy.

Working differently with AI

According to Chan Chio Ho, government CTO of SNDGO and senior advisor to the Singapore Economic Development Board, a number of global “shifts” have underscored the need for a new approach to technology, with AI and the cloud playing a key role.

Speaking at the Google Summit, Chan pointed to environmental and technology changes and said people now want to know how digitization impacts the environment and their personal safety. The more people exposed to cyber security risks and the more investors want to see results, the harder it is for businesses to work for every dollar.

Too: These experts are racing to protect AI from hackers

He said that there are more important trust and security concerns than a few years ago, where fewer people paid attention to these issues. There is also zero tolerance for downtime, where online services and apps that go down for an hour will grab headlines.

With technology now ubiquitous and touching every aspect of daily life, Chan stressed the need to protect customers and citizens and ensure trust in systems and services – otherwise no one would want to use technology.

There have also been big technological changes and they pointed to SaaS (software-as-a-service) as well as cloud, and generative AI being the key ones that matter.

Too: Generative AI is changing your technology career path. what to know

Hailing the Singapore government’s cloud journey, which began seven years ago, Chan said the move was important not only for cost efficiency, but also to provide access to a global ecosystem of the best technology resources . Organizations that don’t open up to the cloud also run the risk of running bespoke applications that may not be able to scale quickly and support faster time-to-market, he added.

However, according to Chan, many organisations, including Singapore’s public sector, are tied to legacy systems. There is also a lack of relevant IT capabilities, without which the digital transformation journey will be difficult.

In addition, policies need to capture an environment that is increasingly cloud-driven, he said. Unless Singapore takes a progressive approach to policies, brings in the best talent, and rids itself of legacy systems, any step forward could mean two steps back.

Too: ChatGPT can be used in 6 harmful ways

This situation makes a compelling case for innovation, Chan said, pointing to government efforts to promote AI and cloud adoption. He added that a new version of GCC will be equipped with higher security measures to enable more confidential and critical workloads to be moved to cloud infrastructure.

Agritech company Jiva is also taking similar precautions in adopting AI, which includes generative AI. Its mobile app recently launched a new feature called Crop Doctor, which lets farmers load images of crops to diagnose diseases and recommend relevant treatments that can suit their needs.

Asked whether the company had concerns about harnessing generative AI amid alleged security issues, Aditya Thareja, Jiva’s head of business strategy and partnerships, admitted that there were concerns about potential risks. “We want to make sure that things like hallucinations (happening) come down to a small percentage. The last thing you want is to give wrong advice to farmers,” Thareja said during a media briefing on the sidelines of the summit.

Too: My 5 Favorite AI Tools for Work

Jiva, which has operations in Singapore, Indonesia and India, built Crop Doctor on Google Vertex AI, harnessing computer vision and image processing to identify crop diseases and causes, such as potassium deficiency. It recommends treatment based on its in-house data library

Thareja said that to mitigate potential risks, the big-language AI model is trained only on data that is received and tested by Jiva. The generative AI model doesn’t scrape public data from the Internet, he stressed, stressing that the company continually fine-tunes the quick-engineering capability to provide the right answers.

Crop Doctor was tested on WhatsApp with 25,000 farmers before the feature was launched on Android in Indonesia, where the mobile OS has the highest reach. Jiva currently has 125,000 farmers on its registry in the Asian market.

Too: How ChatGPT can rewrite and improve your existing code

An earlier iteration, called Crop Care, also provided treatment recommendations based on crop images, but did not customize these results based on a farmer’s specific access to essential components.

Sherry Ng, Google Cloud’s Singapore country director, said AI, particularly generative AI, was taking center stage and “rewriting” the cloud industry, leading to new ways of transformation.

Commenting on the vendor’s collaboration with the Singapore government, Ng said: “AI can shape public sector digital service delivery in profound and meaningful ways, from automating data entry to fraud detection, to cancer research.” To accelerate, strengthen emergency response and inform water resource management.

“We look forward to working with GovTech to create a vibrant pool of domestic talent across a range of AI-related roles in the public service (and) advance Singapore’s national strategy to implement scalable and responsible AI innovations.” help increase.”