Josephine Teo's address at the Singapore Conference on AI

Opening SCAI, Josephine Teo positions the conference as a starting place of humility — Singapore wants to learn from the world while also contributing. She points to water as Singapore's existential issue: once 80% imported, now 40% supplied by recycled NEWater, with the Singapore International Water Week and Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize sharing lessons globally. SCAI is modelled on that giving-back instinct.

Teo uses traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture as the metaphor for the conference's systems view. AI risks — bias, misinformation, displacement, autonomous agents — need targeted interventions that restore balance to the whole system. The conference partners with the Topos Institute and gathers delegates from about 16 countries, complementing the UN High-Level Advisory Body, the G7 Hiroshima process and the UK's AI safety work, but focused on unblocking pathways rather than governance.

Citing Lydia Liu's ICML-winning work on the delayed effects of fair machine learning, Teo argues the conference must move past principle declarations to concrete outcomes, current state of the art, promising approaches and ways to measure progress. She hopes SCAI seeds a lasting brain trust focused on the questions worth patient investigation.

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

friends and colleagues thank you for making time to be here with us in Singapore my team and I are keenly aware that you have taken a major leap of faith to join us at the inaugural Singapore conference on artificial intelligence for the global good or Sky conferences with an AI theme these days are a dime a dozen what does Singapore hope to achieve with his own conference that is different and meaningful why is this a good use of your time and what would encourage you to join us next year and also to invite your like-minded friends to do so whether or not these questions have crossed your mind we feel we owe you a clear articulation of our intentions first let me say that we start from a place of humility a genuine desire to learn and a firm belief that we must contribute of all the things that want to learn about AI it is to learn to ask the right questions even if they turn out to be very tough questions with no easy answers in our short Journey as an independent nation Singapore has had to deal with many tough questions of survival of relevance of national unity in seeking answers to these questions we have benefited greatly from the wise Council of many International experts for example Dr Albert vinus a Dutch Economist who was Singapore's economic advisor from around 1960 soon after Singapore ceased to be a British colony against the conventional wisdom that was popular at the time Dr vinus recommended that Singapore focus on attracting foreign investments and building up a manufacturing sector his proposals served Singapore well at age 74 having advised Singapore for nearly a quarter Century he stepped down from the road by then Singapore had come to be known as an niie a newly industrializing economy a description that has gone out of fashion but was popular back then in the 80s I mentioned Dr vinus because he was a most respected friend of Singapore Whose advice we greatly valued in the same way we see you our Sky delegates as respected friends who have also been most generous with your advice to us there is however one big difference our conviction is that when it comes to AI it is not only what Singapore can learn from the world it is also what we can contribute to it through Sky we hope to offer a platform for experts and thoughts leaders to come together to share knowledge and ideas to Foster International collaboration a Brain Trust if you will this aspiration is perhaps best exemplified by our water story as you may be aware water is an existential issue for Singapore this is very ironic we are an island nation but we have a very limited water catchment and in the past up to 80% of our water was imported from overseas just think about that 80% of the water that we consume have to be imported from overseas in the 1990s when membrane Technologies were maturing we sent our people to learn this technology from the United States so that we could use it to recycle water the Recycled water which we called new water now supplies up to 40% of Singapore's needs through new water and other Technologies like Des salination we have harnessed technology to overcome an existential problem but we have not stopped there we have also shared our experience freely so that others too May benefit every year we host the Singapore International Water week where International experts exchange ideas and Solutions in water management we promote continuous innovation in water Technologies in the hope that it will alleviate Global Water shortages the leanu water price is presented annually to recognize outstanding individuals and organizations s that contribute towards solving the world's water challenges AI has more often been compared to electricity than water as a general purpose technology with this audience I don't need to persuade you about the potential for AI to be a force for good globally enough has been said and demonstrated about the commendable applications of AI for drug Discovery personalized learning energy optimization and many other positive use cases the downside risks are also familiar AI systems have flaws including bias and inaccuracies AI systems can be used by Bad actors to create misinformation and cyber crime at scale AI systems may cause significant displacement effects for both businesses as well as people and its benefits may not be equally distributed within and across countries AI agents acting autonomously May behave in ways that are inimical to the interest of human societies if that were to happen and there is no reason why it cannot then AI may present existential risks to the world as much as water is an existential risk to Singapore therefore along with an attitude of embracing AI Innovations Singapore is equally committed to confronting its risks and here is where we see opportunity to also contribute through an approach which has similarities to traditional Chinese medicine traditional Chinese medicine or TCM is commonly practiced in our part of the world as a complement to Western medicine practitioners of TCM view the body as an integrated system their interventions are designed to restore balance and to achieve Health one treatment in TCM is acupuncture which involves fine needles inserted into strategic points in our bodies the goal is to stimulate the channels through which Chi or energy flows to promote a beneficial healthy energy that runs throughout the organism now in case you have never tried acupuncture and have trouble figuring out what on Earth I'm saying we've actually arranged for an acupuncturist to be with us all day tomorrow all day tomorrow if you feel stuck in the conversations um are just curious sign up for a 30 minute session and maybe that will help you along so consider that our modest contribution to help you get into the flow while in Singapore just as TCM practitioners strive for holistic health through a systematic approach the systems Orientation May well be the most robust approach to considering our strategies and efforts to address the opportunities and the risks in AI development we have therefore convened sky with a systems orientation we are very grateful for the participation and the partnership of The topos Institute and here I want to personally thank its chairman ilas Khan and CEO Dr Brendan Fong for their intellectual rigor in shaping this program thank you so much we are hopeful that this Gathering away from the hype and the flashlights that so often surround AI conferences these days can find the Strategic points on which to focus our efforts while thinking about the whole system in which we and future Generations will live We believe that in doing so we stand a better chance of arriving at a new equilibrium in AI development specifically our goal in the next few days together is to identify the critical questions of AI that if answered systematically will enable AI to truly serve the global good asking the right questions We Believe gets us closer to the answers that we need this is how the world has practically eliminated small pox and cfc's and developed covid vaccinations but the articulation of these questions needs to be sharp and specific need like if you will two weeks ago I attended a talk by Dr Lydia Leu an incoming assistant professor at Princeton University where she discussed her work on the delayed impact of fair machine learning incidentally her work won the best paper award at the International Conference on machine learning in 2018 this was the second consecutive year that a Singaporean was a first author on the winning paper after Dr kopang we achieved this accolate in 2017 pangue is very modest but he is here today as a sky delegate Lydia's work showed that applying common algorithmic fness criteria for example using credit scores as loan approval criteria do not necessarily lead to Fair outcomes for people over time instead it is essential to go beyond pure Theory to also consider systems Dynamics and interaction effects in order to make practical positive impact I found her conclusions to be very thoughtful Lydia's spirit of moving beyond generalities towards practical purpose is very much in keeping with Singapore's DNA similarly we think for Sky to be useful we want to build upon the Declarations of principles to deepen the conversations in concrete terms we aim to systematically focus on the outcomes we want to achieve identify the current state of the art outline promising approaches and very importantly articulate the means to measure progress over the next 3 days will we succeed in identifying a set of sharp sharp grounded Sky questions that help to shape the global agenda in AI we don't know for sure as Raymond has said sky is an experiment and we will be collectively learning along the way but we know that we must try because the age of AI is too important for us to sleepwalk into particularly as a small country constrained by the size of our Workforce ai's potential as a force multiplier holds much promise provided we are able to help our people adapt AI is at the same time a technology that no country can stop from entering its borders nor its effects from impacting its societies and on Cross border issues Singapore has long believed in the need for international cooperation this is why we have actively contributed and occasionally played leadership roles such as in the UN convention on the law of the sea in the world intellectual property organization the open-ended working group on cyber security and the Forum of small states the Singapore conference on AI for the global good is our latest effort s Cai Sky complement other initiatives such as the United Nations high level Advisory Board the G7 Hiroshima process the UK aai safety Summit and its upcoming state of the science report and recognizes that these efforts focus on the governance of AI the intervention the prevention of risks or how we might apply AI in solving Global issues like climate change sky on the other hand allows us to take a step back to ask what we need to unblock in order to create Pathways for AI development and deployment we also hope that the friendships and connections forged here at Sky will be the start of an international Brain Trust to strengthen International cooperation on AI and focus attention on the questions that deserve our most patient and persistent investigations a Brain Trust to address the complex issues in AI will require diverse perspectives and Raymond had shared with you the diversity of the group that is assembled here today I would just add that among all the delegates when we count countries from which you originate there are apparently about 16 but I know that you're all citizens of the world it's very difficult to say that you wear one hat and not the other you also come from dis different disciplines and different parts of an ecosystem whether it's industry Venture capitalism and so on a four individuals who are with us today also serve on the UN high level Advisory board on AI and they are Yan talin who somehow has managed to get his dance moves recorded in Singapore over the weekend it's a very nice uh compliment to acupuncture besides acupuncture we have a we have a dance expert here too Yan is happy to oblige I think we have uh Marie sha I'm trying to look for her because I haven't had a chance to meet her oh she's running a bit late I apologize Professor landre Nelson thank you for being here and of course one of our conference directors raymen after Sky they will be flying off to New York for the first inperson meeting of the high level Advisory board but I also understand that many of you are flying off to other conferences the global partnership on AI uh in India for example thank you all for making time to be here despite the exhausting travel schedules that must have committed you to as a result I hope you will bring insights from this conference to where wherever you are headed so that we can grow this community globally likewise to all of our other Ed uh delegates whether or not you have another appointment in Asia to get to we cannot thank you enough for being willing to join us in this endeavor we hope that you will find this a meaningful use of your time to build a Brain Trust that will help to truly bring about AI for the global good