SINGAPORE: Singtel said a lack of talent trained in artificial intelligence ( AI ) could be one of Singapore’s most consequential bottlenecks in its digital journey.
This comes as the telco giant unveiled its new, end-to-end AI cloud venture RE: AI last Thursday ( October 10 ), which aims to make AI technologies and services more accessible and affordable for businesses.
According to the company, the service may be especially useful for local governments and sensitive industries like financial institutions that are looking to work with a local company to process data directly.
In collaboration with AI Singapore, the National University of Singapore ( NUS), and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singtel is launching an AI Acceleration Academy ( AAA ) to expand the talent pool.
The telco hopes to impart knowledge about AI to its employees so they can become more adept at it, as well as create a curriculum that other businesses can use to improve adjust to an extremely AI-driven environment.
A number of significant corporations have even made announcements to start and expand operations in the country, away from Singtel. The most recent is ChatGPT’s family company OpenAI, which intends to open its Singapore company later this year as part of its international expansion plans.
Mr Bill Chang, CEO of Singtel’s Digital InfraCo system, said AI can be a great army multiple and efficiency driver, with opportunities ahead for some enterprises.
In a wide-ranging meeting, he told CNA how Singtel stands out against companies, why Singapore is an interesting place for AI owners, and how the country you sustain the momentum to keep ahead of the AI trend.
Q. Tell us about De: AI and how it stands out among the lengthy list of buyers in Singapore’s AI area.  ,
Our Be: AI cloud service aims to address the data center stage level of complexity of the infrastructure. We make it a service … from integration of software … to delivery with various types of networks … ( including ) a quantum safe networking for highly sensitive data. By combining all these, making it open and flexible, making it successful and removing the difficulty, making it simpler to use for sectors and enterprises, is Be: AI’s goal.
We are a homegrown brand, offering sovereign GPUs ( graphics processing units ) from a homegrown operator. Some clients place value on that.
Q. What makes Singapore so interesting for AI purchase?
First, Singapore is a company hub. The global business community has a lot of great faith in us, and we have a strong communications system. We’ve got very good outreach ( in ) Southeast Asia … and an ability to export very quickly. Artificial inventors around the world are very interested in the successes we’ve achieved as a gateway and that we can replicate across our companions in the region.
Singapore has the potential to draw in many more ( investors ) by developing collaboration platforms and expanding upon our attractiveness as a hub. We’ve got a very progressive government that thinks about policies with private and public sector collaborations, ( including ) agencies in science and research.
Q. How significant are public-private alliances for firms considering establishing operations in a nation?
We need to make sure that these alliances between the public and private businesses have a clear goal-driven approach to achieving these goals. To address the needs of AI entrepreneurs who want to consider about Asia and Singapore beyond their home businesses, we ( must make sure that we are extremely targeted.
I think we’re at the start of this. We’ve had some rapid successes, which is really heartening to view. However, this is only the beginning of AI, with businesses expanding and establishing operations in this area. It’s essential to maintain that momentum and expand that achievement, so that we can produce a bigger ecosystem. The ability to produce these intersections and connections will add value as more players are present.
Q. What is Singapore do to increase its appeal to Artificial investors?
I would say: Build on the skills pool. AI companies are very strong in software, and as they expand, they will have top quality people in Artificial engineering, data scientists and people who are able to convert solutions.
Many businesses are trying to use artificial intelligence, but they are having a difficult time doing so.
( For Singtel ), we aim to train our over 10, 000 employees to be AI proficient, so that they are able to capture value in this AI revolution that is ahead of us.
( There is also ) the sustainability issue. With GPUs consuming so much energy and carbon footprint, how do we do it sustainably? We must have the infrastructure in place to enable the deployment of more GPUs to support the AI drive.
Q. How can data centres stay both high-performing and sustainable?
GPUs, the heart of processing for AI outcomes, consume a lot of energy and generate a lot of heat. We need specialised environments ( such as ) liquid-cooled designs to handle that. ( Singtel ) has been investing heavily in sustainable, AI-ready data centres.
Last June, there were only about 60 megawatts ( MW) operating in Singapore. More than 400MW of data centers are currently being built in four countries in Southeast Asia, and half of that capacity will be liquid cooling capabilities.
We are also looking into, for instance, using renewable energy to power our assets in our operations and working with our customers to address some of the renewable energy needs in the upcoming years.