SMS Tan Kiat How’s Opening Remarks at the FutureChina Global Forum

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to join all of you at the FutureChina Global Forum’s AI Track.

Let me start with the perspective I bring to today’s discussion. I have spent much of the last 25 years at the intersection of technology and public policy. I am fundamentally optimistic about technology — its potential to improve lives, strengthen businesses, and create new possibilities for society. I have also spent much of that time thinking about how we manage the risks and disruptions that come with technological change.

There is another question that is never far from my mind. How does it a small country like Singapore stay relevant, create value, and contribute? AI brings these three questions sharply together.

First, how do we fully realise the economic and societal value of AI?  Second, how do we manage the accompanying risks and disruptions? Not just the risks that may emerge in the future, but those that are already with us today. Third, what does all of this mean for Singapore?

These questions are connected because, ultimately, the challenge is not simply to build more capable AI. It is to build companies, workers, institutions, and societies that can turn increasingly capable AI into better outcomes for all — productively, safely and confidently.

Let me turn to the first question. How do we fully realise the value of AI? Much of today’s attention is focused on the current AI race – better models, more compute, more advanced chips, more data, and more energy.

That race will continue, but I think another race is becoming just as important – the adoption and transformation race. As advanced capabilities become more widely available, the bottleneck is shifting from the technology to the system around it.

There is a simple way to see this. Imagine giving two companies access to the same frontier AI model. Would they achieve the same results? Almost certainly not.