Karan Bajwa (Google Cloud)
Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI), Digital Industry Singapore (DISG), Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO) and Google Cloud have launched ‘AI Trailblazers’, a joint initiative aimed at accelerating the development of “impactful” generative AI solutions.
AI Trailblazers is designed to help organisations in Singapore identify challenges that can be addressed with generative AI, build generative AI solution prototypes, and bring these prototypes to production.
This announcement builds on the strategic collaboration between MCI and Google Cloud and the launch of the AI Government Cloud Cluster (AGCC) in May 2023.
Under the AI Trailblazers initiative, two Innovation Sandboxes have been established to provide up to 100 organisations in Singapore with access to Google Cloud’s graphical processing units (GPUs), Vertex AI platform, pre-trained generative AI models, and low-code developer tools.
Companies will not face any costs for a fixed duration of up to three months.
The first Innovation Sandbox, administered by SNDGO through the AGCC, is dedicated for use by government agencies in Singapore.
The second Innovation Sandbox, administered by DISG, is dedicated for use by Singapore-based companies.
“Generative AI is a transformative and yet accessible technology which presents a tremendous opportunity to boost our digital economy,” said Jacqueline Poh, managing director of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).
“The AI Trailblazers initiative will help Singapore-based companies experiment, uncover value, and create novel and meaningful generative AI solutions to deliver better products and services.”
To deepen their in-house AI capabilities, organisations participating in the AI Trailblazers initiative will be enrolled into a mandatory full-day workshop sponsored and conducted by DISG, SNDGO, and Google Cloud.
Participating organisations’ AI practitioners will receive hands-on training by Google Cloud engineers to identify use cases that can be addressed using generative AI and build at least one solution prototype using toolsets from the Innovation Sandbox.
The organisations can also continue to collaborate with DISG, SNDGO, and Google Cloud to turn their prototype into a minimum viable product (MVP) and demonstrate their MVPs to a panel of technology experts, as well as other potential government and commercial users in November and December 2023.
The panel – made up of representatives from MCI, DISG, SNDGO, Google Cloud – will evaluate these MVPs based on design, usability, reliability, functionality, and propensity for real-world application.
High potential MVPs will be shortlisted as ‘Capstone Projects’ and receive the opportunity to be showcased and recognised at the AI Trailblazers Awards ceremony organised by MCI, DISG, and SNDGO toward the end of the year.
From 24 July to 30 September 2023, DISG, SNDGO, and Google Cloud will run these workshops for up to eight cohorts, with the goal of identifying and addressing 100 generative AI use cases across government and industry within the next 100 days.
Organisations that will be participating in the AI Trailblazers initiative include the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the Public Service Division (PSD), SNDGO, the Government Technology Agency (GovTech), American Express, Mastercard, PropertyGuru Group, and Tokopedia.
“Early movers in Singapore are already leveraging generative AI to better serve and engage with their stakeholders,” said Karan Bajwa, vice president of Asia Pacific at Google Cloud.
“However, to drive awareness and adoption of this technology requires the programmatic and intentional approach that we’re proud to be undertaking in partnership with the Singapore Government.
“With AI Trailblazers, we’re orchestrating a clear pathway for organisations to quickly and responsibly develop and deploy their own generative AI solutions with baked-in security and data governance. It is the first of a series of initiatives under our joint four-pronged strategy with MCI, as we look to establish a local AI ecosystem that fundamentally and sustainably positions Singapore as an open and trusted global AI hub.”
