AI Singapore has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with
Intel Corporation to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in
Singapore by providing industry-relevant and skills-based training. A goal has
been set for engaging and training around 2000 students and developers over the
next three years.
Under the MOU, AI Singapore will host free-of-cost training
sessions based on the Intel®
AI Academy suite of content for students, developers, start-ups and
companies. The Intel® AI Academy is an open initiative offered to academia,
professionals, and start-ups worldwide. Intel also intends to send their
world-wide AI experts to co-host some of these sessions.
Participants in the Intel ® AI Academy will gain access to
Intel-hosted forums and technical support for their usage of Intel hardware
platforms and software tools for research and projects. Moreover, the Intel® AI
Academy will assist in organising meetups, offer event-based training and
provide expert guidance on Intel frameworks and tools to the next generation of
AI professionals.
In addition, AI Singapore will be including the Intel® AI
Academy content as part of its AI
Apprenticeship Programme (AIAP). The programme announced
last year, is the result of a collaboration between AI Singapore and the Infocomm
Media Development Authority (IMDA) and it is the first TechSkills Accelerator(TeSA) company-led
training programme in AI.
Under the MoU, AI Singapore will also be able to access or
submit relevant publicly available, research papers, whitepapers, solution
briefs, project descriptions and technical content via the Intel® Developer
Zone or affiliated Intel websites.
Laurence Liew, Director, AI Industry Innovation, AI
Singapore, said, “AI is going to be pervasive and will impact all sectors of
the industry,” said “Intel is an important ecosystem player and partner, and we
believe having the AI apprentices and ecosystem of developers, start-ups and
companies trained and familiar with the Intel accelerated frameworks and tools,
especially the next-generation of AI CPUs and frameworks, is important in staying
at the bleeding edge of AI.”
“The rise of AI will open up incredible new experiences and
fuel new business opportunities, scientific discovery, and societal
improvement,” said Santhosh Viswanathan, Managing Director-Sales &
Marketing, Intel Asia Pacific and Japan Territory. “Intel believes AI has the
potential to improve people’s lives and therefore continues to collaborate with
institutions like AI Singapore to develop the right talent to lead this
movement.”
AI Singapore was launched
in May 2017 by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Singapore with up to
S$150 million in funding to catalyse, synergise and boost Singapore's AI
capabilities. The 5-year initiative is
driven by a government-wide partnership comprising NRF, the Smart Nation and
Digital Government Office (SNDGO), the Economic Development Board (EDB), IMDA,
SGInnovate, and the Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS). Institutes of
Higher Learning, including National University Singapore (NUS), the Nanyang
Technological University (NTU), Singapore University of Technology and Design
(SUTD) the Singapore Management University (SMU) and public sector research
agency, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), are also part of
this AI Singapore.
In addition to the
AI Apprenticeship programme mentioned above, AI Singapore’s key programmes include
fundamental research,
addressing Grand
Challenges and conducting 100 experiments in collaboration with companies
to tackle real-life business problems.
