On October 28, 2022 9-11am, the Singapore-China AI Forum focusing on AI4Good was held successfully at the B2 Ballroom of Resorts World Convention Centre in Singapore.

 

The Singapore Week of Technology and Innovation (SWITCH) and the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) continues the strategic collaboration to co-organize this forum as part of the AI4Good dialogue series. Executive organisers for this forum are DHLS and AIII with Tech4SDG Alliance for Asia and SenseTime as co-organisers. 

 

The forum, themed "Accelerating Cross-Border Dialogue towards Multilateral AI4Good Initiatives" aims to promote "AI for Good" by strengthening deeper cooperation among AI technology institutions, companies and talents.

 

 

Speaker Group Photo

 

 

Ms. Renee Tan, Hashtaqs MD and Founder, Emcee for the Singapore-China AI Forum

 

 

 

We are privileged to have Ms. Renee Tan as Emcee to host this forum，where she introduced the audience to the background and theme of this forum, the organisers, executive organisers and co-organisers. She also takes the opportunity to share the contributions of the ecosystem partners.

 

 

Dr. James Ong, Founder and MD of AIII

 

 

Dr. James Ong delivered the opening speech on “Why We Are Here?”where he shared the core purpose of this forum is to deliver on Impact with AI towards AI4Good.

 

 

 

He also shared the chronology of critical encounters of how this forum has evolved from 2017 with engagement of AI ecosystems in Singapore and China has evolved into the vision of Artificial Intelligence International Institute (AIII) as an AI Think Tank to advocate “Sustainable AI for Humanity” and resulted in a series of ecosystem dialogue events focusing on AI4Good including this current SWITCH x WAIC Singapore-China AI Forum.

 

Keynote Speeches

 

# 1 Keynote Speech - Dr. Francesca Rossi

 

 

Dr. Francesca Rossi，AAAI President，IBM Global AI Ethics Leader，

IBM Fellow，AAAI Fellow，A*STAR AI Fellow

 

 

Dr. Francesca Rossi participated in the forum online from New York where she delivered his keynote speech on "AI for Good – a global perspective". 

With her leadership role as AAAI President and IBM Global AI Ethics Leader as well as her extensive work on AI Ethics and AI4Good at the worldwide level, she shared her insights and findings on “AI for Good” with a global perspective.

 

 

 

She shared a very comprehensive perspective on AI Ethics with a complete ecosystem coverage from Research to AI companies, Standard bodies, Education institutions and Governments. She also addressed the important question of why any company should building or using AI should care about AI ethics.

 

 

 

Francesca also discussed the impact of AI on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The framework and scope shared by her will serve a good blueprint and roadmap for further work needed by done in Asia as well as at the global level.

 

# 2 Keynote Speech - Prof Gu Qingyang

 

 

 Prof Gu Qingyang, Chairman of Tech4SDG Alliance, NUS LKY School of Public Policy

 

 

Professor Gu Qingyang delivered his keynote speech on "Tech4SDG - Why What and How We Can Make It Happen?".

 

 

 

Prof Gu shared the vision and why the Tech4SDG Alliance for Asia was initiated under his leadership. He also elaborated on what are the key focus areas of Tech4SDG and articulated some of the concrete Tech4SDG case studies that are being initiated towards achieving some of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals!

 

For example, Singapore's 10 Million .AI project focuses on SDG4 (Quality Education) and on using technology to promote sustainable development and gender equality in Asia; the SenseTime Intelligent Nursing System brings peace of mind and convenience to ALS patients and their families; over the next decade, the Asia-Pacific metaverse is expected to generate more than $1 trillion in economic output, and every US$1 invested will bring US$3.16 in economic growth, with a return-on-investment ratio of more than three times.

 

# 3 Keynote Speech - Prof. David Lee

 

 

Prof. David Lee, Chairman of GFI, Professor SUSS

 

 

Professor David Lee addressed the audience with a keynote titled "AI Ethics and Convergence of Technology." 

 

 

Professor Lee also shared his thought leadership on the topic of governance where Blockchain4Good and AI4Good are very dear to his heart. He also shared his insights on how AI and Blockchain can reinforce each other for better governance. 

 

In particular, he provided a very insightful framework that links the governance relationship between Humans, AI and Blockchain and how they could and should govern each other.

 

# 4 Keynote Speech - Dr. Luo Zhen 

 

 

Dr. Luo Zhen, ParityBit, CEO & Co-Founder

 

 

The topic of "Democratize AI with a Platform and Ecosystem with Privacy-Enhancing Technologies" was delivered by Dr. Luo Zhen during his keynote to the audience.

 

 

Dr. Luo Zhen shared his vision of Privacy-Enabled Technologies and how ParityBit has built up a comprehensive platform called Arkshop towards enabling an ecosystem and marketplace of Secure Computing where more organisations can now implement more secure AI solutions with the necessary privacy and security features.

 

He also welcomed other complementary AI product providers to join the Arkshop platform ecosystem where together, a more complete and comprehensive solution of secure computing can be provided to customers.

 

Ecosystem Progress Announcements

 

#1 WAIC x SWITCH China-Singapore AI Ecosystem Strategic Collaboration

 

 

Mr. Woei Yuan Seng, Deputy Director, Enterprise Singapore & SWITCH

 

 

Mr. Woei Yuan Seng shared the announcement of such a strategic breakthrough in Singapore-China AI ecosystem partnership by the two of the largest Tech and AI ecosystem, Singapore Week of Innovations and Technology (SWITCH) and World AI Conference (WAIC). The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by the representative parties of Pico-MP and DHLS on September 3, 2022, at the WAIC 2022, witnessed by Enterprise Singapore and AIII.

 

 

He articulated that this would foster more dialogue via events between all the ecosystem stakeholders with the rest of Asia and the world and empower more collaboration towards Tech4Good and AI4Good. He also summarized that the collaboration between SWITCH and WAIC has actually started in 2021 and has successfully collaborated with 4 events, where this is particular Singapore-China AI forum was the fourth event.

 

#2 Tech4SDG Alliance for Asia

 

 

Prof Gu Qingyang, Chairman of Tech4SDG Alliance, NUS LKY School of Public Policy

 

 

Dr. James Ong, AIII, MD，Tech4SDG Alliance, SG Secretary-General

Professor Gu Qingyang, Chairman of Tech4SDG and Associate Professor from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) at the National University of Singapore and Dr. James Ong, the Singapore Secretary-General of Tech4SDG and the founder and MD of AIII announced the establishment of Tech4SDG in Singapore. 

 

 

Announcement on the Establishment of Tech4SDG Singapore Chapter

 

 

 

 

Tech4SDG Chairman Professor Gu shared more information on the founding organizations and also, the current list of participating members.

 

 

As Tech4SDG Singapore Secretary General, Dr. James Ong shared the 3 areas of focus in the coming years:

 

(1) Multilateral Ecosystem for Thought Leadership, Dialogue and Collective Actions

 

(2) Impact Tech Ventures

 

(3) Tech for“Tech for Good”

 

 

 

At the same time, Dr. James Ong is very proud to announce the release of two research outputs of the Tech4SDG contributed by key members of the alliance:. They are:

 

(1)"Digital Transformation Facilitating Balanced Development in Asia - Report on Technology for Sustainable Development in Asia (2022-2023)" (English version) 

 

(2) "Metaverse: The New Economic Road in Asia-Pacific" (English version)

 

These reports can be downloaded from the website: 

 

http://www.tech4sdgaa.org/research.

 

 

Tech4SDG members were invited on stage for group photos including AIII, SMU Academy and RIMAS

 

#3 AI4Good Education by SMU Academy, Risk and Insurance Management Association of Singapore (RIMAS) and Artificial Intelligence International Institute (AIII)

 

 

Mr. Jack Lim, SMU Academy Executive Director

 

 

Mr. Andeed Ma, RIMAS President

 

 

 

 

Mr. Jack Lim of SMU Academy and Mr. Andeed Ma shared the stage to share their aspirations that education and skill-building can make a difference in enhancing the use of AI technology in more responsible and sustainable ways. 

 

Under the AI4Good Education initiative, the partnership between SMU Academy, AIII and Risk and Insurance Management Association of Singapore (RIMAS) to launch Advanced Certificate in Sustainable AI for Business is to equip working professionals with the knowledge and skillsets to ensure AI is sustainable from the business perspective. 

 

 

Dr. James Ong, Mr. Michael Low, Mr. Jack Lim and Mr. Andeed Ma took the stage with a group photo for the announcement

 

Round Table Panel 

 

 

The topic of the roundtable panel is “Accelerating Cross-Border Dialogue towards Multilateral AI4Good Initiatives”and it is curated to initiate dialogue and with purpose of start a conversation about making it possible for multilateral organizations from different countries to work together on AI-related projects. 

 

A distinguished list of speakers who are already involved in AI4Good initiatives as follows:

 

1) Dr. Luo Zhen, ParityBit, CEO & Co-Founder

 

2) Mr. Andeed Ma, RIMAS President

 

3) Mr. Cai Yilun, SenseTime International, Solution Director

 

4) Dr. Uzair Javaid, BetterData, CEO & Founder 

 

Moderating the roundtable panel is Dr. James Ong from AIII, MD & Founder.

 

 

Dr. James Ong as moderator for the Roundtable Panel

 

Dr. James Ong opens the panel session by sharing his view that enabling AI4Good is a community effort that requires an ecosystem with multilateral stakeholders to come together and collaborate to make it happen. This could include stakeholders with different domain expertise from Industry, Education, Research, Investment, Applications and Governance. The challenge becomes even harder when such multilateral collaboration is done cross border with different languages, cultures, priorities, business environment and regulations for different countries. The aim of this roundtable panel is to initiate the dialogue towards how to enable such multilateral cross-border collaboration towards AI4Good initiatives.

 

 

Dr. Luo Zhen advocating PET and Secure Computing Ecosystem towards AI4Good

Dr. Luo Zhen shared what his AI startup ParityBit is doing to provide Privacy-Enabled Technologies (PET) and how they have been developing and nurturing a securing computing platform and ecosystem to allow multiple AI technology providers to collaborate collectively to serve their market.

 

 

Mr. Andeed Ma articulating the important link between Risk Management with AI4Good

Mr. Andeed Ma shared what and how RIMAS (Risk and Insurance Management Association of Singapore) has fostered collaboration with their members from across different industry sectors to advocate on various areas of risk management with best practices, which one of the chapters was created to focus solely on AI Risk. He also shared how he has led the association to collaborate across border in other countries including Europe, Africa and China. 

 

 

Mr. Cai Yilun shared SenseTime’s principles, technology roadmap and contribution towards AI4Good

Mr. Cai Yilun shared some of the work SenseTime as the AI leader has advocated in terms of the 3 principles of Sustainable Development, Human-Centric and Controllable Technology and how they form their core values in expanding their AI business as well as new technology frontiers such as Metaverse. 

 

He also shared what SenseTime has contributed in enabling the multilateral cross-border partnership such as Tech4SDG Alliance for Asia so that institutions and experts across different countries in Asia could collaborate to enable various Tech4Good initiatives towards UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

 

 

Dr. Uzair Javaid shared what Better Data’s goal to have AI4Good Impact

 

Dr. Uzair Javaid shared their young journey as an AI4Good start-up that focuses on using Generative AI technology to enable creation of synthetic data to ensure data privacy while harnessing the availability of data to create business values for AI applications. He also shared what are partners they will need as collaborators to help them in their young journey.

 

Dr. James Ong wrapped up the roundtable panel by encouraging all the panel speakers and their organisations as well as the institutions and individuals on the audience to reach out to each other to explore and seek help from each other in their efforts towards AI4Good.

 

 

Group Photo of the Roundtable Panel

 

Closing

 

Renee Tan delivered the closing remarks and by welcoming and giving early notice to the audience to participate in World AI Conference (WAIC) 2023 in Shanghai, likely in July 2023 as well as SWITCH & AI Summit 2023 in Singapore, likely in October 2023.

 

 

 

 

Highlights

 

A. Behind the Scenes 

 

 

Wonderful to see our speakers interacting before the event and then, networking with audience after the event.

 

B. Appreciation with Good Memories for our Speakers

 

 

As token of appreciation, each speaker is presented with the Echeveria Rosea plant that signifies tenacity, persistence & strength, which is aligned with Resilience for Sustainable AI. The red pot symbolises luck, joy, and happiness in the Chinese culture & it's also the color for SWITCH. We hope our speakers will have sweet memories for participating in this event.

 

 

C. Come Together for Common Aspirations

 

 

 

At the end, it is very satisfying with the collective efforts and contributions by the working team and the speakers to put this event together for the good cause of advocating AI4Good!