# Singapore will face the AI challenge sooner than most countries

- Date: 2026-02-01
- Who: Tharman Shanmugaratnam (President of Singapore) · CNA
- Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKcA49D2HGA
- sgai: https://sgai.md/videos/v011/
- License: sgai-authored content (summaries, translations, analysis) is CC BY 4.0 — attribute and link to sgai.md. Verbatim source text (Hansard, speeches, transcripts, policy documents) remains © its original rights holders and is reproduced for reference only. Terms: https://github.com/meltflake/sgai/blob/main/DATA-LICENSE.md

## Why it matters

In his 2026 Davos speech, Tharman Shanmugaratnam set the tone: Singapore's AI strategy should prioritize resolving the distribution of gains, rather than merely competing on speed.

## Summary

President Tharman Shanmugaratnam argues that, given its openness and economic structure, Singapore will feel AI's full impact sooner than other countries.

## Key points

- Tharman says Singapore will face AI's full impact sooner than most countries because it is small, open, and tech-dependent.
- AI is treated as a productivity gain; the real challenge is distributing it across the whole workforce.
- The US and China can compete on economics and AI while collaborating to rule out AI-driven warfare.
- There are several AI races — foundational research, applications, standards — and neither superpower will sweep all of them.

## Full text

© CNA — reproduced for reference only.

President Tamman Shamatam says Singapore will face the AI challenge faster than many other countries as it's more exposed to it. His point came during an interview he gave on the sidelines of last month's World Economic Forum in Davos that was broadcast today. Our advantage, however, is that we've always faced the challenge faster than other countries because we are small, we are very open and we rely on technology as a source of competitiveness. So we look at AI like every other form of productivity improvement as a plus and the real challenge is that we want that plus to be distributed up and down the workforce. On the bigger picture, Mr. Thman believes China and the US can collaborate in some fields including ruling out AIdriven warfare.

He says the cooperation from smaller nations like Singapore is also crucial for global AI governance and safety. There's several AI races. There's foundational research. There's implementation and implementation in a whole set of different domains from uh healthcare to robotics and factories to many other areas. Uh there's about standards and the dis dissemination of standards globally which then get countries to buy into your AI stack versus someone else's. There's a whole set of races and it is most unlikely that either the US or China uh is going to win an AI Nice.