SINGAPORE – Singapore plans to triple its pool of artificial intelligence experts, including machine-learning scientists and engineers, to 15,000, as part of its national AI strategy, deputy prime minister Lawrence Wong said on Monday.
The Southeast Asian nation of 5.45 million, which is home to the Asian headquarters of global tech giants, such as Google owner Alphabet and Microsoft, said it would also work to boost its available high-performance computing resources by securing access through partnerships with chipmakers and cloud service providers.
Nvidia revenue for the quarter that ended in October included $2.7 billion that originated from Singapore, trailing only the U.S, China, and Taiwan, according to a company filing to the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission.
Singapore also pledged under its AI strategy to increase government incentives for the sector, including by backing accelerator programs for AI startups and encouraging companies to set up AI “centres of excellence.”
In addition to the drive to recruit foreign talent, authorities plan to ramp up local AI training programmes and operate a supply of graphics processing units (GPUs) to be available to the country’s researchers.
Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) announced on Monday a $52.3 million ($70 million SGD) initiative to develop Southeast Asia’s first large language model, catering to the region’s languages.
(Reporting by Fanny Potkin in Singapore; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
