SGInnovate intensifies debate on Artificial Intelligence at ARISE

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&D[1]. On a global scale, the AI market is also growing
rapidly. It is estimated that 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[2].

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 a part of the robust startup ecosystem here, our
mission is to enable ambitious and capable individuals and teams to imagine,
start, build, and scale globally-relevant technologies. With the support of our
partners, SGinnovate’s priority is to work with deeply-technical founders that
have research-originated IP at the core of their company.  We back these
entrepreneurs through equity-based investments, access to talent, and support
in building customer traction. With a focus on important areas including
Healthcare, Resources, and Transportation, we are prioritising our efforts
around Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Blockchain. These technologies
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