On October 12, the United States and Singapore held the inaugural U.S.-Singapore Critical and Emerging Technology (CET) Dialogue in Washington, DC. The Dialogue builds on previous commitments to strengthen bilateral collaboration across the countries’ business, scientific, and national security communities. Singapore and U.S. committed to deepen cooperation across six key areas, namely artificial intelligence (AI); digital economy and data governance; biotechnology; critical infrastructure and technology supply chains; defense innovation; and quantum information science and technology. The next CET Dialogue will be held in Singapore in 2024.
At the dialogue, Singapore and the U.S. announced the successful establishment of interoperable AI governance frameworks with the completion of a joint mapping exercise between the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority’s (IMDA) AI Verify and U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) AI Risk Management Framework (RMF). The U.S. and Singapore plan to establish a bilateral AI Governance Working Group to complement the United States’ Voluntary AI Commitments and a potential multilateral AI Code of Conduct. The group will focus on advancing shared principles for safe, trustworthy, and responsible AI innovation Cooperation around AI will also be strengthened by expanded collaboration between the U.S. National Science Foundation and AI Singapore (AISG) through joint research and educational funding opportunities focused on trustworthy and safe AI systems.
The U.S. and Singapore also committed to developing a Roadmap for Digital Economic Cooperation. It will charts common principles and objectives for priority issues such as data governance, digital standards, digital inclusion, consumer protection, and uplifting SMEs. The countries will also collaborate to facilitate trusted data flows, including through work under the U.S.-Singapore Partnership for Growth and Innovation (PGI) and the Global Cross-Border Privacy Rules Forum.
