Two nights ago, the Prime Minister’s Office of Singapore posted an excellent talk by Singaporean Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the 69th Economic Society of Singapore annual dinner!

There is plenty to learn about and a ton of different insights on many different topics from SM Lee, and I highly recommend anyone who is interested in the economics of our changing world order to watch it with interest and even to consider taking notes.

There is plenty to learn here, from marginal thinking to tariffs to the realities of taking back a policy – and it is all very much worthwhile.

The only part that triggered me a little bit was when a lady representing Singapore’s GIC asked a question about the skill sets that will be important for the workforce in the age of generative AI; I made a small contribution on the page as such, and you can also read it here, through the pictures.

Here was my response.

SM Lee,

Thank you for the insightful talk, which offered me a lot of insight into trade policy, the politics intertwined with economics, the Pandora’s box that is Liberation Day tariffs, and so many other things!

It was packed with insights and many thoughts that I found were interesting to think about – I certainly will choose not to lie flat and hope to make a difference in many good ways, whether from where I am in Malaysia at the moment or in any eventuality of time when I should move to Singapore, which I would be happy to if the correct opportunity were to come along.

If I were to make a small contribution, SM, the lady from the GIC was asking specifically about generative AI, which is not in general the same as artificial intelligence and machine learning models that seem more pertinent to the examples you provided. Generative AI is more ChatGPT than medical diagnosis, and is more related to creating text, images, and videos upon prompting and making use of computing systems in order to create things that humans might otherwise not have the inspiration or understanding to be able to do – which encompasses anything from writing emails from bullet points – and then summarizing emails into bullet points!!! – to doing homework and in turn to generating pictures and even movies.

Perhaps part of the skill of functioning well in a generative AI world is knowing and understanding what it means to be human and how to accentuate and articulate that humanness in the face even of multiple AI-generated sources of influence, whether to appeal to others who are also human through personality and advocacy or being able to distinguish what was artificially generated from what was humanly made to finer and finer degrees even as we become more integrated and AI in turn shapes our patterns of thought.

I would further add to that that at 43:56 you said “automatic” general intelligence, Sir.

If I may make a small correction, it is actually Artificial General Intelligence; although it is yet to come fully into existence, the challenges that it poses, I think, are not just about what statistical models can produce, but in turn also touch upon the question of whether it can self-improve and get to a point whereby it becomes independent of human beings – a notion that is very interesting, philosophically speaking, though it is unclear that in the scenario of existence of such a thing, the concept of moving to another industry would be relevant.

It is definitely logical to think about what the technology can do at this point and to understand its implications and possible uses and how it can translate into second- or third-order effects as the technology changes.

We are left fundamentally still with the problem of managing how human beings live, work, interact, and negotiate the boundaries of a world that is changing and has changed in both this era and beyond.

Thank you again for your sharing, and I look forward to learning more from you in the future – if at a later point you will take up my invitation to join me on my podcast, I look forward to meeting you in that context then!

V.

Sorry for the irregular updates of late – will try to get back on track in a bit; enjoy the video!

Yours,

Sepupu.