SINGAPORE — Online surfing is expected to get faster, with Singapore enabling mass market access to faster broadband speeds by 2030 to support emerging technology such as artificial intelligence (AI). 

Announcing this during his Budget speech on Friday (Feb 16), Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said that the nationwide broadband network will be upgraded to 10 gigabits per second (Gbps), which is 10 times faster than the speed at which most households are operating on today.

The network upgrade, he added, will be made possible by allocating more resources "to catalyse investments".  

WHY IT MATTERS

Mr Wong, who is also Finance Minister, explained that the upgrade will ensure that Singapore's connectivity infrastructure will be able to support technologies such as AI and immersive media as they become more pervasive in the future. 

"Besides anchoring new investments, we must build on our existing strengths and upgrade the sectors where we have competitive advantages," he said.

Aside from a steady commitment to research and development, Singapore also needs to "harness the full power of technology across our key sectors", he added.

As to the focus on AI, he said that AI was not just about ChatGPT or large language models. A large language model is a computer program that learns and generates human-like language and content by processing vast amounts of data. ChatGPT, which became popular in Singapore last year, is an example of such a model. 

“It is a general-purpose technology, like electricity, the internal combustion engine, the computer or the internet.

“It has the potential to transform a wide range of industries and to enhance productivity across many existing processes, from drug discovery to organising warehouses and driving vehicles,” Mr Wong said. 

S$1 BILLION INVESTMENT IN AI OVER NEXT 5 YEARS

Singapore is already recognised as a serious player in AI development, but the Government is aiming "to go further" to build new peaks of excellence and crowd in private sector investments along the way, Mr Wong said.

These plans have been laid out in the National AI Strategy 2.0, which was announced in December last year and includes goals such as putting AI to "meaningful" use in industry, government, and public research performers, and attracting "top-tier" researchers and engineers to work with Singapore.

To support this strategy, Mr Wong announced that more than S$1 billion will be invested in AI computing, talent, and industry development over the next five years. 

Part of the investment will be used to ensure that Singapore can secure access to the advanced chips that are crucial to AI development and deployment. 

“We will also work with leading companies in Singapore and around the world to set up their AI centres of excellence here. We want these centres to spur industry collaboration and innovation, and drive greater value creation across the entire economy.”