AI research and innovation center to be

Established in Singapore by IBM and NUS

 

 

 

SINGAPORE: By 2025, the NUS School of Computing is anticipated to host a new AI research and innovation center with an emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI) safety and green computing.

By utilizing the full-stack AI infrastructure of the American IT giant, IBM and the National University of Singapore (NUS) have collaborated to establish a center that would expedite scientific study in this area.

At the IBM Think 2024 event on August 15 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Minister of Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo made the announcement about the new center.

Mrs. Teo stated that IBM has been a longstanding AI partner of the Republic, with many of the company’s initiatives benefiting the general population.

This will be the first university campus in the Asia-Pacific area to host IBM’s full-stack AI infrastructure system, which includes all the software and hardware needed to develop, test, and launch an application.

The company’s Red Hat hybrid cloud platform and Watsonx, an AI and data platform created by IBM, will power the AI-optimized computing architecture.

According to a statement from NUS and IBM, the new center will be used by government organizations, businesses, and educational and research institutions to carry out cutting-edge AI research that can help people.

According to the proposal, “the partnership would take advantage of NUS’s technological leadership to propel advancements in AI, enabling more potent, effective, and adaptable AI systems that can handle progressively more challenging tasks.”

According to NUS and IBM, the center will create AI technologies using an open innovation strategy with a sustainability focus, embracing ideas from both internal and external sources. This method has the potential to increase the quality and speed of adoption of new AI technologies.

Together, they want to create methods and technologies that will promote AI’s credibility.

Vice-president of IBM Research’s hybrid cloud and AI platform Priya Nagpurkar stated, “We look forward to furthering this collaboration.

A common objective between IBM and NUS is to promote advances in artificial intelligence and sustainable computing.”

NUS’s deputy president for research and technology, Professor Liu Bin, expressed the university’s excitement at the prospect of working with IBM.

She stated, “We aim to be the leading force in addressing rising industry demand for AI intelligence, cultivating a robust talent pool, and contributing to Singapore’s decarbonization efforts.” This builds on the recently announced establishment of the new NUS AI Research Institute and the university’s strong commitment to sustainability and green computing.

As part of the partnership’s efforts to develop local deep-tech start-ups, Red Hat OpenShift AI and IBM’s Watsonx platform will be made available to small and medium-sized businesses, the NUS Graduate Research Innovation Programme (Grip), and local start-ups.

Grip is an initiative to aid in the formation of startups based on scholarly research.

Neither IBM nor NUS announced the amount of money being invested in the new center.

It is not to be confused with the recently established NUS AI Institute, which conducts study on the ethical implications of AI, its underpinnings, and its applications in a range of disciplines, such as education and healthcare.

IBM was one of the partners of the group that managed the NUS AI Institute.

NUS said that although though the two programs are separate, it expects “a lot of synergy” between the research activities of the NUS AI Institute and the new center.

Minister-in-charge of Cybersecurity and Smart Nation Mrs. Teo described the project as an example of how Singapore’s AI ecosystem is “steadily building up.”

The government, she continued, acknowledges AI‘s potential to advance public welfare.

She pointed us in the direction of ReadLiao, an AI-powered program developed by Open Government Products, a different division of the Government Technology Agency, which provides simplified summaries of official documents to elderly citizens in order to improve their comprehension.

“We will keep bringing business, government, and academia together to form fruitful collaborations that will benefit all of us.”

After the National Quantum Strategy was unveiled in May, Mrs. Teo said that quantum technology will be the focus of Singapore’s future efforts.

The characteristics of subatomic particles are utilized by quantum computers to solve issues that are too complicated for conventional computers.

Using the local start-up SpeQtral as an example, Mrs. Teo urged industry partners to collaborate with the government in developing use cases and standards for the technology.

 SpeQtral, a digital encryption firm, uses quantum key distribution technology to provide safe communication across borders.

“We anticipate seeing more of this kind of innovation in our quantum ecosystem, which can affect industries like banking, logistics, and healthcare more broadly,” said the spokesperson.