Singapore will face the AI challenge sooner than most countries

In a Davos interview, Tharman says Singapore's edge is that it has always faced technology challenges faster than other countries — because it is small, very open, and relies on technology for competitiveness. He treats AI as another form of productivity gain. The real challenge, he says, is making sure that gain reaches up and down the workforce.

On the bigger picture, Tharman believes the US and China can cooperate in some fields, including ruling out AI-driven warfare, and that smaller nations like Singapore are essential to global AI governance and safety. He notes there is no single AI race — foundational research, applications across healthcare, robotics and factories, and the global spread of standards are all separate contests, and neither the US nor China is likely to win any one of them outright.

Caption language: en · Fetched: 2026-05-02

President Tamman Shamatam says Singapore will face the AI challenge faster than many other countries as it's more exposed to it. His point came during an interview he gave on the sidelines of last month's World Economic Forum in Davos that was broadcast today. Our advantage, however, is that we've always faced the challenge faster than other countries because we are small, we are very open and we rely on technology as a source of competitiveness. So we look at AI like every other form of productivity improvement as a plus and the real challenge is that we want that plus to be distributed up and down the workforce. On the bigger picture, Mr. Thman believes China and the US can collaborate in some fields including ruling out AIdriven warfare.

He says the cooperation from smaller nations like Singapore is also crucial for global AI governance and safety. There's several AI races. There's foundational research. There's implementation and implementation in a whole set of different domains from uh healthcare to robotics and factories to many other areas. Uh there's about standards and the dis dissemination of standards globally which then get countries to buy into your AI stack versus someone else's. There's a whole set of races and it is most unlikely that either the US or China uh is going to win an AI Nice.