SINGAPORE has come up with a list of questions on artificial intelligence (AI) that it will take to the United Nations (UN) High-Level Advisory Body on AI, in the hopes of shaping the global AI agenda.

The 12 questions are a result of discussions at the Singapore Conference on AI (SCAI), a three-day conference ended Wednesday (Dec 6) that brought together 42 delegates from around the world in Singapore.

The delegates, representing various fields of academia, industry and government, discussed “critical questions of AI that if answered systematically, will enable the harnessing of AI to the global good”.

The questions deal with how to appropriately develop, use, evaluate and govern AI.

“We took the view that asking the right questions is key to steering AI for the public good,” said Dr Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information.

Answering these questions will require “collaboration between all the different communities involved”, said one of the delegates, Prof Koh Pang Wei, who is an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington.

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“New technical developments can give policymakers more options; policy directions can give (people on) the technical side new challenges to think about, new considerations for solutions,” he added.

Any developments regarding the SCAI questions at the UN High-Level Advisory Body on AI will be shared in due course, said Weng Wanyi, director at the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office’s National AI Office.

The UN advisory body, which runs till September 2024, looks at recommendations for the international governance of AI.