AI governance must balance ambition and humility: President Tharman

Speaking at the Asia Tech x Singapore opening gala, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam argues that ambition and humility have to coexist in how the world uses and regulates AI. Trying to ensure that AI only does good would mean halting innovation that already drives medical science and discovery.

He frames governance as a precondition for innovation, not its opposite — technology only stays accepted if societies trust it. Whether the world ends up with plentiful jobs and stable democracies depends on what scientists, policymakers, companies, unions and civil society do together now.

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

president th shamur ratnam says that balancing both ambition and humility is crucial to how we harness and regulate artificial intelligence and this comes as Ai and related Tech are advancing at a very fast pace speaking at the opening Gala of Asia Tech Singapore he says it's also not realistically feasible to ensure that AI only delivers good it would mean putting a stop to AI in inovation and that means putting a moratorium on all the potential good that AI can bring in medical science and Discovery and a whole range of other areas so we cannot realistically aim to ensure that Ai and the related Technologies surround it only delivers good plus he says that AI governance is needed for Innovation and that's so advancement in such Tech remains trusted and accepted by societies the President also stressed that International cooperation is crucial to reap the benefits and prevent potential harms whether we get a world of plentiful and better jobs a world sayfe for democracy depends on what we do now working collaboratively between scientists and Engineers public policy makers private Corporation ations labor leaders Civil Society to shape technological EV Evolution to deliver the most good and avoid the worst