Remarks by Minister Josephine Teo for Digital Development and Information at Digital@UNGA

Distinguished colleagues and friends, good evening and thank you for inviting Singapore to share our views on digital inclusion, digital development and in particular AI.

There is tremendous excitement about what AI can do but in Singapore we try to focus on a slightly different question – Not simply: How capable is the technology? But: What difference does it make to people?

We have been fortunate – we are not starting from scratch.

Over many years, Singapore has invested in digital connectivity, digital identity, cloud infrastructure, data, and digital capabilities within government. For us, infrastructure is less of an immediate constraint. Our challenge is how to make good use of the foundations and strengthen them.

Our first challenge is therefore to deploy AI for impact, including within the government. We see two opportunities in the public service: helping our officers work better, and serving our citizens better.

Almost 70% of public officers use AI tools regularly. They were encouraged to, and they do so for tasks such as analysing information and preparing drafts. We are now exploring the use of AI agents that could help us redesign entire workflows while keeping officers accountable for important decisions.

AI is also helping us serve our citizens better. We use machine learning to route feedback so that a broken swing or faulty streetlamp gets to the right agency more quickly. At our borders, AI helps identify anomalies in millions of cargo shipments. To combat scams, AI helps us detect signs of phishing and impersonation.

These examples cut across multiple agencies and functions. But the principle is the same: the real measure of AI innovation is not how impressive the model is. It is whether it improves people's lives.

We are also very mindful that over time, people will only rely on AI if they trust it.

AI can be used for many types of harms. For example, scams can become more convincing and personalised; cyberattacks are easier to execute.