MCI Response to PQ on Ensuring Development and Maintenance of Ethical Artificial Intelligence Standards

Parliament Sitting on 9 May 2023

16. Dr Tan Wu Meng: To ask the Minister for Communications and Information considering the advances in artificial intelligence (AI) with platforms such as ChatGPT and the GPT-4 architecture, what attention is being given to promoting and ensuring (i) the development of ethical AI which responds in a manner consistent with human values and (ii) maintenance of ethical standards in the development, dataset training and deployment of AI.

Answer:

1 Singapore supports the responsible development and deployment of AI, so that its benefits may be enjoyed in a trusted and safe manner. Our approach was explained at the 19 April 2023 Sitting.

2 Among other measures, we introduced the Model AI Governance Framework and AI Verify, a self-testing toolkit to demonstrate responsible deployment of AI. Later this year, we plan to issue the Advisory Guidelines on the Use of Personal Data in AI Systems under the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA). We regularly engage industry and international counterparts, such as through our Advisory Council on Ethical Use of AI and Data and the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, to keep abreast of developments.

3 Where necessary and useful, we will update our measures to take into account the impact of developments like ChatGPT and GPT-4. For example, the Public Service has introduced guidelines for public officers using similar technologies to draft documents. These guidelines make clear that public officers are accountable for their work and are responsible for fact-checking and vetting AI-generated content. The guidelines also aim to safeguard data security, by reminding officers not to input sensitive information into these applications.