Many Singaporeans have concerns about the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), digital tech, biotechnology and robotics, and how these will affect Singaporeans and their employment prospects.
Ambassador-at-Large Tommy Koh, who was in the audience at the Global-City Singapore: SG60 and Beyond conference, hosted by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and the Singapore Business Federation, asked PM Wong if Singaporeans are prepared for these technological changes, given how the world is being transformed by them.
He added: “What can we do for persons who will not benefit? I see that already university graduates are finding difficulty in getting jobs.”
Here’s PM Wong’s response.
On Artificial Intelligence
I think AI will be the defining technology of our time. It is a general-purpose technology, just as computers and the Internet were. The thing about technology is this — we get very enamoured with countries that are the leaders of the cutting-edge, frontier technology.
And yes, there will be some rewards that go to countries that are the pioneers and are the first. But in fact, the big advantage of technology is when there is broad-based adoption; when countries really, truly harness technology across the entire economy. That is when you reap the real benefits. And you see this across history.
With technology, it is not just about cutting-edge frontier. It is about broad-based adoption, and we will have to think hard about how we do that for AI today.
AI, unlike previous waves of technology, is already quite accessible. Everyone in this room would have had a chance on your phone to ask ChatGPT or to ask OpenAI; AI is embedded in WhatsApp. You can use AI, but most of us use it the way we use Google. That is not exactly the best way to use nor harness the potential of AI.
And even with AI, it’s not just about Large Language Models. That is only a small part of it.
There is still so much potential to be unlocked and unleashed, and so we will have to think harder about how we can help every company, big and small, especially our smaller enterprises, make full use of AI, integrate it into your processes, transform your industry and business, and elevate productivity in a more significant way.
There is a lot more that can be done, and we are thinking about how we can help businesses do so. I spoke with one CEO recently.
He said he had decided, because of the importance of AI, to get everyone in the management team to set aside a few days or even weeks of their time focusing on how AI can transform their company and think about how AI can be embedded within their work processes or what changes can be made.
And he realised there were tremendous advantages that they had not really thought about.
That kind of a transformation, if we can make it happen, company by company, can yield significant advantages for us. If there is any country that can do that, it is us, because we are small, we are compact, and we can do this company by company.
On jobs for fresh graduates and young Singaporeans
Now then the concern is, what happens with jobs? It is a real concern, not just with young people, but with workers everywhere.
We can take some comfort in history. Because if history has been any guide, every wave of new technologies that we confront, jobs will disappear, existing jobs will evolve, but new jobs will get created.
Usually, the new jobs are better jobs, higher paying jobs, because productivity increases, the pie expands, and humans get to do the better jobs. But this is not an economic law.
This is just historical fact, and history may not guide our future.
There are concerns that with AI, things will be different because AI is so powerful and can do so many things that humans can. So will we see this happening with the next wave of AI?
People are worried, people are wondering, and there are good reasons to be concerned.
Even as we think about broad-based adoption of AI, which we have to do because we have no choice – we have to harness technology. We also have to think equally hard about applying technologies like AI in a meaningful and deliberate manner that creates jobs for Singaporeans.
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On how Singapore will prepare our workforce for the future
It is up to us, and again, we can do it in Singapore.
Because we have the ability as a compact system, with our strong tripartite partnership, with the relationships we have with employers and unions, to discuss before the technology is rolled out, to think about how we redesign jobs, how we retrain workers, how we pace out the technological changes.
And that is what we must do in Singapore, not just rush headlong into AI.
Yes, embrace it, adopt it. But always make sure that the technological changes that we harness — the power of technology — benefits workers, not replaces them, and always ensure that workers will thrive in this new environment.
