ASEAN-CYBER AI | Singapore to face AI challenge sooner than many other nations–president
President Tharman Shanmugaratnam in an interview with political commentator and media executive Ian Bremmer in Davos, Switzerland. PHOTO: MDDI
SINGAPORE – Singapore will face the challenge of artificial intelligence (AI) sooner than many countries because it is small, open, and relies on technology as a source of its competitiveness, said President Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
By the same token, it has the digital infrastructure necessary to take greater advantage of AI and is used to facing challenges faster than other countries, Mr Tharman said in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that was broadcast on Feb 1.
“We look at AI like every other form of productivity improvement – as a plus,” he said. “And the real challenge is that we want that plus to be distributed up and down the workforce.”
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In his Jan 20 conversation with political commentator and media executive Ian Bremmer, Mr Tharman said that countries should think about AI not just as a threat from a new technology, but as a positive challenge – of how to maximise human capital and build up people’s capabilities, so as to achieve mass flourishing.
“If we build up people’s capabilities, something works out. It works out for them, and it works out for your whole economy,” he said as he urged nations to focus on capabilities, rather than industrial policy or trying to predict the future.
Mr Tharman said this will be a challenge everywhere in the world and will not be easy, as it means investing in a large, middle layer of the workforce – white-collar workers – so that they can work with AI, find roles complementary to AI, or to meet growing demands in areas such as healthcare.
Noting that Singapore started the SkillsFuture national movement over a decade ago to encourage constant upskilling, he said: “We can do that well in Singapore because it’s just part of our economic psyche.”
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Zooming out, Mr Tharman identified global governance of AI – to maximise the potential gains, while guarding against its worst risks – as the area where the world is least prepared.
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Such risks include the possibility of AI-driven nuclear warfare, runaway misinformation and cyber warfare by non-state actors.
For the world to rule out some of AI’s worst dangers, there must be a mindset shift between the leading private sector players and governments around thinking who is going to win the AI race, he said.
“There is no one AI race. There are several AI races,” he said, citing foundational research, AI implementation across domains from healthcare to robotics, and whose technology stack gets the buy-in of different countries.
It is unlikely that the United States or China is going to win an entire AI race, and that should push them to find a framework to compete while seeking win-win outcomes in areas such as drug discovery, said Mr Tharman. He noted that US and China’s leaders have previously agreed that humans, and not AI, should control nuclear arms.
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At their Oct 30, 2025, meeting in South Korea, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed, in principle, to further AI talks.
“It is possible for the US and China to come to some form of understanding where they will continue to be rivalrous, continue to be intense rivals in the economic sphere, including in AI, while exercising restraint inothers and even collaborating in some fields – because it’ll be in their common interests,” said Mr Tharman.
While the US and China are critical in this effort to rule out the worst of AI while competing over the best, Mr Tharman said small and medium-sized countries are part of the game.
He gave the example of a conference on AI safety organised by Singapore in April 2025 which brought together more than a hundred scientists from around the world, including from both powers.
“It’s unfortunately no longer easy to do that between the two countries, but it’s a role that small, neutral countries like Singapore can play,” he said.
Mr Tharman stressed that it is not just the countries or companies that are doing AI research and building the most powerful products that should dictate the direction of travel.
For instance, there is a role for Europe to play given that it it has leverage as a major market for AI, he noted.
The world has to see that every form of global cooperation does not have to be led by a single player or a major power, emphasised Mr Tharman.
“They’ve got to be at the table, but we all contribute and we all act in some way to make sure that guardrails are in place,” he said.
“Sometimes, it is the more vulnerable countries that are the first to want to institute guardrails, and the major powers eventually come on board.” /dl
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