Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

Singapore’s Minister for Communications and Information, Josephine Teo, launched AI Verify Project Moonshot at ATxAI, a signature conference held on Day 2 of Asia Tech x Singapore (ATxSG) 2024. Project Moonshot is an easy-to-use testing toolkit designed to address security and safety challenges often associated with the use of large language models (LLMs)—the cornerstone of many AI-driven solutions.

Project Moonshot is one of the world’s first open-sourced tools to bring red-teaming, benchmarking, and baseline testing together in an easy-to-use platform and is a testament to Singapore’s commitment to harnessing the power of the global open-source community in addressing AI risks.

An open beta, Project Moonshot aims to provide intuitive results of the quality and safety of a model or application in an easily understood manner, even for a non-technical user. It was developed through working with partners such DataRobot, IBM, Singtel, and Temasek to ensure that the tool is useful and aligned with industry needs.

“IBM is pleased to be a design partner and contributor to AI Verify Project Moonshot. The provision of this new tool is significant as it aims to help developers and data scientists test their LLM applications against a baseline of risks, thereby accelerating the adoption of AI. We look forward to working closely with IMDA to develop appropriate open standards through our contributions,” said Anup Kumar, Distinguished Engineer, CTO Data & AI, Head Client Engineering Asia Pacific, at IBM.

“DataRobot is thrilled to partner with IMDA to make LLM evaluation more accessible through Project Moonshot. The integration of Project Moonshot into the DataRobot AI Platform allows AI builders to confidently and responsibly scale generative AI within their organisations,” commented Jay Schuren, Chief Customer Officer at DataRobot.

Moving Towards Global Standards with Project Moonshot

Project Moonshot is also part of an important move towards global testing standards. Two of the leading AI testing organisations—AI Verify Foundation and MLCommons—have come together to build a common safety benchmark suite.

“We are proud that leading AI testing organisations AI Verify Foundation and MLCommons are coming together to support common testing benchmarks for AI safety, building on innovative efforts like Project Moonshot. To further the collaboration, AI Verify Foundation and ML Commons have signed a memorandum of intent (MOI) on 29th May, intending to positively impact AI safety by providing model and application developers a globally accepted approach of safety testing for generative AI,” said  Peter Mattson, MLCommons President and Co-Chair of the AI Safety working group.

AI Verify Foundation Celebrates First Anniversary  

The AI Verify Foundation (AIVF) also celebrated its first anniversary at ATxSG. Launched in June 2023, AIVF aims to harness the power of collective expertise in enabling responsible use of AI. The foundation has since doubled its membership to over 120, with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Dell joining as new premier members. AIVF has expanded the remit from AI testing tooling to the development of trust enhancing AI safety products such as the Model AI Governance Framework for Generative AI.

At the AI Verify Foundation’s first-year anniversary celebration, Dr Ong Chen Hui,  Chair, Governing Committee, at AI Verify Foundation, shared that key feedback from users were the need for AI Verify to align with emerging standards and cater for sector-specific testing. In response to this feedback, she announced that AI Verify Foundation has completed the mapping of AI Verify with ISO 42001 and would be integrating AI Verify with MAS’ Veritas toolkit.

AI Verify Foundation members gather for first anniversary celebration, which coincided with the launch of Project Moonshot  (Photo credit: IMDA)

Championing Women in Tech in Southeast Asia

Minister Teo also spoke on a panel at Women and Youth in Tech, where she unveiled findings from an IMDA and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) joint report titled “Closing Tech’s Gender Gap in Southeast Asia.” The report surveyed over 4,000 individuals across the region including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

According to the report, 83% of women in the tech sector are satisfied with their jobs and 70% believe that their company has initiatives to improve the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women— an increase from 49% in 2020.

It also found that with 40% of women in technology, Singapore remains at the forefront of promoting gender diversity and inclusion in the industry within Southeast Asia. However, while there have been greater strides to support women in the sector across the region, more can be done to improve women’s representation in technical roles and leadership.

Minister Teo reiterated Singapore’s commitment to nurture and support women in tech with initiatives such as:

• SG Women in Tech (SGWIT) movement
• Singapore 100 Women in Tech list, which identifies and recognises mentors and role models to help women in their leadership journey
• TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA), which enables professionals to acquire the relevant in-demand skills, including helping women return more easily to technical roles after a career break.

Such initiatives have made a significant impact as Singapore continues to lead the way in the representation of women in tech in Southeast Asia.

More Highlights at ATxASG

Other key highlights at ATxSG include:

Start of Global Consultation on Digital Inclusion  

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in collaboration with IMDA, convened a high-level roundtable at the ATxSummit and launched a 100-day Global Consultation and Digital Inclusion Playbook.

The Playbook features IMDA’s Digital Skills for Life (DSL) framework, which underpins the national Digital for Life (DfL) movement, among other global case studies. With Singapore as the starting point, the roundtable kickstarted the consultation process with a productive dialogue among senior government officials from various countries, as well as representatives from international organisations, private sector, and civil society

IMDA Partners Google

In support of the national DfL movement, Google has rolled out the Gemini Academy, a skilling programme designed to educate learners on the fundamentals of AI.

Originally designed for teachers, Singapore will be the first country where the Academy’s content is extended beyond the classrooms to the members of the public. IMDA will take reference from Gemini Academy’s curated GenAI content, in its update of the DSL resources to include GenAI content.

GenAI content can be found on the DfL portal, which also features resources for learning DSL. IMDA will also work with Google’s Gemini Academy on GenAI workshops at NLB’s libraries.

The public can register for these workshops later in 2024 via NLB’s Eventbrite page.

(0)(0)