Smart Nation "AI Assistant" provides relevant, contextual information when asked by iqbal.khir

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This idea would help to improve communications between citizens and relevant government agencies, shortening reaction times. Ease of data access will also lead to better informed citizenry!

Some concerns are the issue of privacy and data protection, especially when data is collected on such a large scale. How can a smart nation cater to citizens who may have concerns about sharing their private data?

Hi RAHS, 

Personal data protection is something which the government rightly takes a very serious view on (e.g. PDPA), so conceivably any smart nation service has to be robust enough to be able to function with zero, limited, or full access to private data based on what each citizen has authorised.  If the service has zero access to private data, the citizen would have to fill in the details when prompted, or the answers provided would be generic answers that are not personalised.  There could even be services which override preferences in very specific scenarios, e.g. an SOS function on the smartphone would provide GPS location to the first responders, as the citizen may not be in a state to dictate his location.

Hi Robert,

I was thinking of a more government directed/funded, industry developed solution.  I believe we do have small, standalone apps created by private developers using government data and APIs (e.g. haze app, bus stop app), as well as apps by government agencies themselves (www.smartnation.sg/apps).  But the scope of this AI which sort of knows everything and functions as a single window to ALL government info and services, will require: 

- significant resources (funded by government so that it can be free to use without giving up personal data),

- know how on AI, machine learning, natural language processing etc (which only the big tech companies possess),

- access to as much government info as possible (which the government needs to provide, and cut red tape)

If Singapore can do this (and I believe we can, just a matter of when), it would have a direct and beneficial impact on how citizens go about their lives, and truly be a quantum leap towards making Singapore THE Smart Nation.