SINGAPORE: As part of moves to attract and nurture top minds in the area of artificial intelligence (AI), Singapore will launch professorships as well as a masters programme, said Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo on Friday (Mar 1).
The AI Visiting Professorship aims to attract top researchers to collaborate with Singapore, and the plan is to award it to a pilot batch of five visiting professors over the next few years, said the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI).
These professors will be required to spend at least 20 per cent of their time on these collaborations. They will also need to identify a local collaborator and will be encouraged to supervise junior researchers and students in Singapore.
“The goal is for these AI visiting professors to drive research aligned with our national AI research agenda, provide increased training opportunities for local students and catalyse additional research activities in Singapore,” said MCI.
This follows Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s announcement during his Budget 2024 speech earlier in February, that the government will invest more than S$1 billion (US$743.7 million) over the next five years in AI computing, talent and industry development.
This supports Singapore’s updated National AI Strategy (NAIS) 2.0, which was launched in December last year.
“There is no doubt that technology has become a big part of Singaporeans’ daily lives,” said Mrs Teo in parliament, laying out her ministry’s spending plans for the year.
“Overall, 84 per cent say that digital technologies have made their lives easier, and more than half are prepared to try new technologies.”