Filtered by: AI
CNA's Singapore Tonight featured Professor Anthony Tung from the Department of Computer Science as a live studio guest on Singtel's two consecutive days of mobile connectivity disruptions.
On the cause of the outage, Prof Tung pointed to (possibly) cascading errors across hardware, software, and core routing systems — rare combinations that engineers have never encountered before, making them exceptionally difficult to diagnose and resolve.
Asked whether current safeguards are sufficient, he offered a vaccine analogy: just as no vaccine is failproof, no network can anticipate every unforeseen failure. Beyond a certain reliability threshold, he noted, the cost of incremental improvement becomes prohibitive — making rapid detection, isolation, and recovery the more practical priority.
On whether consumers should expect better, Prof Tung gave a characteristically balanced response — affirming that higher standards are warranted, while also calling on individuals to reduce over-reliance on mobile connectivity and maintain fallback options.
"We should always expect better, but I would also take proactive action to ensure there is no over-reliance on the phone, and always have something to back up on."
CNA Singapore Tonight (17 Mar 2025): "Singtel faces second straight day of connectivity issues"
Tech in Asia reported on NUS School of Computing's collaboration with OpenAI to integrate Codex and other tools from OpenAI's enterprise platform into its undergraduate curriculum – giving students hands-on experience with AI-assisted development in secure educational environments.
The tools will be progressively incorporated into over 30 undergraduate courses spanning software engineering, systems, and capstone projects. Beyond the classroom, students will participate in workshops, hackathons, and build days organised with OpenAI and other industry partners.
At its core, the collaboration is about equipping graduates with practical fluency in AI-assisted development while keeping computing fundamentals like algorithms, systems thinking, and problem-solving firmly at the centre.
Channel 8's current affairs programme, Hello Singapore, featured Professor Anthony Tung from the Department of Computer Science in a panel discussion on how Singapore can hold its ground in the age of AI – alongside Minister of State for Digital Development and Information (MDDI) and Education, Jasmin Lau, and a media professional.
On the most essential AI skill, Prof Tung kept it simple: Learn to ask better questions. Where most of us are trained to find answers, he argued that the real shift is learning to prompt, to engage AI in a genuine dialogue.
"You can ask AI to introduce 10 useful prompts for your personal use. AI can then customise a learning plan for you – learn to have a dialogue with it, as if it were a real teacher."
Asked which AI initiative Singaporeans should pay closest attention to, Prof Tung pointed to Singapore's AI Mission. His reasoning was that progress with AI is not about speed, but about direction.
"Learning or using AI isn't about being slow – it's about not standing still. Set a goal, and keep moving forward."
On raising kids in the era of AI, Prof Tung drew on classical Chinese philosophy to make his point. He invoked the Zhuangzi principle of 物物而不物于物 – that one should master things, not be mastered by them. In his view, the humanities are not a retreat from technology; they are its counterweight. "AI is a tool. We set goals, let it work for us, and don't let it replace us." That is why, he added, he places emphasis on culture, philosophy, and human thinking in his daughter's upbringing – qualities that remain stubbornly beyond what any algorithm can replicate.
For students anxious about graduating into an AI-transformed job market, his counsel was steadying: cultivate curiosity, not anxiety.
"You set a goal, enjoy the process, and have an experience of self-driven growth. When a new challenge comes, it's a chance to learn something new."
Associate Professor Kan Min-Yen from the Department of Computer Science at NUS Computing was quoted in a Science Magazine, feature examining a new open-source AI system designed to answer complex scientific questions with a high degree of accuracy.
Associate Professor Kan commented on both the promise and risks of using such tools in scientific work, cautioning that researchers must carefully judge how much to trust AI-generated answers, particularly when they are used as substitutes for primary sources.
"If you're using these tools to [substitute] for the primary sources, that can be dangerous because there could be nuances that are lost.," he said. While such tools may be more acceptable in fast-moving fields like AI — where they can help researchers keep pace with rapidly expanding literature — Associate Professor Kan noted that greater caution is required in domains such as psychiatry, where patients' health is at stake.
The article discussed how the open-source system was evaluated against both human experts and leading proprietary AI models, and how it performed strongly on tasks requiring cross-paper reasoning and literature synthesis. Associate Prof Kan noted that while these systems show promise in supporting scientific research, they should be viewed as tools that augment — rather than replace — human expertise and critical judgment.
Professor Anthony Tung from the Department of Computer Science at NUS Computing was featured in a Lianhe Zaobao report examining the growing spread of AI-generated fake videos and their potential impact on public trust and political discourse.
The report highlighted how advances in generative AI have lowered the cost and effort required to produce highly convincing misinformation, including fabricated videos that combine synthetic scripts, voices, and visuals. Such content, often designed to provoke emotional reactions, can spread rapidly on social media platforms and distort public understanding.
Professor Tung noted that heightened attention around recent political developments naturally drives engagement with such content, particularly among audiences with anti-establishment leanings. He added that Singapore’s high educational attainment means most citizens are able to exercise discernment when encountering sensational or implausible claims.
Beyond monetising online traffic, Professor cautioned that some videos may conceal deceptive schemes, using fabricated news narratives to promote products or services in ways that are difficult to guard against. He observed that regulating such content remains challenging, and suggested that one of the most effective responses may be to “counter AI with AI” — drawing parallels to how spam emails are filtered rather than prevented.
The report also noted that Singapore’s relatively high media literacy provides some resilience, but warned that misinformation may also be used to mask scams or malicious links. Overall, the report emphasised the importance of public awareness, media literacy, and the development of tools to help detect AI-generated misinformation, as synthetic media becomes increasingly sophisticated.
On THE (Times Higher Education) Connect podcast, Professor Tulika Mitra, Dean of NUS Computing and Associate Professor Suranga Nanayakkara discussed how SoC is adapting its education and research agenda for an AI-enabled world - while keeping computing fundamentals at the core. They outlined how the refreshed curriculum builds “AI-native” capabilities (including exposure to LLMs, system design and AI safety), with AI ethics as a compulsory component for all computing students, alongside new and upcoming AI-focused programmes.
The conversation also highlighted SoC’s commitment to interdisciplinary, human-centred research through platforms such as the NUS Artificial Intelligence Institute, and partnerships with government and industry to ensure AI innovation remains socially responsible. Both speakers emphasised lifelong learning through stackable, modular pathways, and the School’s goal of developing graduates who pair technical excellence with ethics, empathy and adaptability.
