SGInnovate Intensifies Debate on Artificial Intelligence at ARISE

First AI-themed event at innovfest unbound 2017 dives deep into the opportunities, challenges and implications of AI in our lives 

3 May 2017, Singapore: SGInnovate is today presenting ARISE, the first-ever Artificial Intelligence themed event at innovfest unbound 2017. The anchor event of the Smart Nation Innovations Week, innovfest unbound is Asia’s largest innovation festival that is expected to see the gathering of more than 8,000 stakeholders from across the innovation ecosystem – including entrepreneurs, corporates, academics, investors, as well as government and media representatives. 

The dawn of artificial intelligence is upon us, and ARISE will provide a platform for researchers, academia and industry leaders to explore the emerging trends throughout the robotic revolution and give insight into how it will affect the way we live and work in years to come. 

Among the leading figures from the tech sphere who will feature at ARISE today include Dr. David Hanson, founder and CEO of Hanson Robotics, who will share his vision of the future of robotics and beyond, and Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of Hyperloop, who will reveal an inside story of the smart people and smart machines powering the next generation transport tech. 

Sessions will also cover macro trends such as machine learning, robotics in the workplace and in the domestic sphere, emerging technologies, and the march towards artificial sentience. Experts from sectors such as healthcare, finance, and transportation will offer insights into how AI will affect their industries on a practical level. 

Steve Leonard, Founding CEO of SGInnovate, said: “Artificial Intelligence has the potential to dramatically impact many areas, such as Healthcare, Transportation and Education. In fact, without even realising it, we have all embraced some form of AI in our daily lives – such as virtual assistants in our phones – and the next few years will bring exciting advances in many ways.”

“We passionately believe that Singapore has the right resources to be an important hub for research, so the challenge for us here is to ensure we are leaders in the development and use of AI capabilities to improve the lives of people here and around the world. We think ARISE is an extremely timely event, and we look forward to the constructive discussion around the challenges and the opportunities, that AI will bring.”

Today, Singapore is already a fast-growing influence within the realm of AI. For example, the country is ranked second in the world by field-weighted citation impact for AI R&D1. On a global scale, the AI market is also growing rapidly. It is estimated that the revenue growth for the cognitive systems and AI market will increase from an around US$8 billion (S$11.1 billion) in 2016 to over US$47 billion (S$65 billion) by 2020.

To further boost Singapore’s AI capabilities, the National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore recently announced AI.SG, a national programme in AI driven by a government-wide partnership with SGInnovate as one of the partners. 

NRF will invest up to S$150 million over five years in AI.SG, which will catalyse and synergise Singapore’s AI capabilities to power our future economy with practical solutions to real-world challenges. 

“As a private company wholly-owned by the Singapore Government, SGInnovate has one purpose – to help aspiring entrepreneurs in Singapore imagine, start, and scale technology-intensive products with the potential to be globally relevant. We are working with entrepreneurs and investors in industries such as healthcare, energy and transportation, all of which are seeing a flurry of artificial intelligence (AI) startups. The launch of AI.SG helps give a solid foundation which a wide range of activities in academia, research, corporates, entrepreneurs and investors can build upon,” added Mr Leonard.

About SGInnovate 

At SGInnovate, we believe that Singapore has all the resources and capabilities needed to tackle ‘hard problems' that matter to people around the world. As part of our Deep Tech Nexus Strategy, we are focused on adding tangible value to the Singapore deep tech startup ecosystem in two key areas – development of Human Capital and deployment of Investment Capital. With the support of our partners and co-investors, we back deeply technical founders through equity-based investments, access to talent, and support in building customer traction. Our efforts are prioritised around transformational technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and MedTech, which represent impactful and scalable answers to global challenges. SGInnovate is a private-limited company wholly owned by the Singapore Government. 

For more information, please visit www.sginnovate.com

Additional resources 

• Event photos available on SGInnovate’s page:
  https://www.facebook.com/pg/SGINNOVATESingapore/photos/ 

Media contacts

Grace Chiang 
SGInnovate 
[email protected] 

Ho Chin Ann 
IN.FOM (Partnering agency of SGInnovate) 
[email protected]