Introduction
Singapore stands as a trailblazer in the area of artificial intelligence (“AI“), quickly establishing AI standards, guidelines, and tools to stay ahead of the ever-advancing tides of AI development and deployment. In recognition of the importance of global collaboration in AI, Singapore has also stepped up as a global leader, spearheading efforts in developing regional AI capabilities, harmonising international AI standards, and strengthening global digital trust partnerships.
These efforts were in the spotlight at the ATxSummit 2025, the flagship event of Asia Tech x Singapore (“ATxSG“). Singapore’s Minister for Digital Development and Information, Mrs Josephine Teo, announced a series of global initiatives aimed at strengthening Singapore’s AI ecosystem and accelerating responsible AI adoption. This includes the following:
- Enhancement of the MERaLiON large language model (“LLM“);
- Launch of the Global Cross-Border Privacy Rules (“CBPR“) Certification;
- Enhancement of the AI Verify Testing Framework and mapping this with the equivalent in the United States of America (“US“); and
- New collaborations with France and Thailand.
This Update highlights the key features and opportunities arising from the above developments.
MERaLiON
MERaLiON is an LLM developed by Singapore to harness cutting-edge AI techniques to process and learn complementary patterns from diverse data sources in a single unified framework. To address the need for country- and culture-specific context in the effective use of an LLM, MERaLiON has broken new ground with enhanced multilingual processing and emotional intelligence.
- MERaLiON has now been enhanced to handle Malay, Tamil, Thai, Bahasa Indonesia, and Vietnamese on top of English, Mandarin and Singlish.
- The LLM now also features advanced code-switching abilities and emotion recognition features.
By being more intuitive and culturally aware, MERaLiON enables enhanced AI application in Southeast Asia. This can be utilised across a variety of applications and is of particular assistance in culturally-specific areas such as customer service and marketing. According to the A*STAR website here (available at www.a-star.edu.sg), MERaLiON is available for download from “Hugging Face”.
The MERaLiON Consortium has also been launched to accelerate adoption, bringing together local and global industry players and research and development institutions to develop practical AI applications.
Global Cross-Border Privacy Rules Certification
The announcement of the Global CBPR Certification, developed by the Global CBPR Forum, is of great significance against the backdrop of increasing global e-commerce, which necessarily involves greater volumes of cross-border data flows. The Global CBPR Certification will allow organisations to obtain documented status to demonstrate compliance with internationally-recognised data protection standards. This in turn will provide access to nine economies with about 40 trillion in market size, with more potential additions to come.
Companies can apply for the Global CBPR Certification from 2 June 2025. Spearheaded by Singapore and the US, businesses may wish to utilise the Global CPBR Certification to facilitate trusted cross-border data flows. This will provide greater assurance to consumers and business partners and will also aid in establishing inroads into the relevant country markets.
AI Verify Testing Framework
While more countries are beginning to develop AI governance frameworks, the cross-border nature of AI application means that it is important to harmonise the disparate frameworks. In this regard, Singapore is continuing its efforts to align international AI governance frameworks.
Of particular note is Singapore’s AI Verify Testing Framework, which is an AI governance testing framework to help companies assess the responsible implementation of their AI systems against internationally-recognised AI governance principles. While it was originally developed to cover traditional AI, it has now been enhanced to address generative AI risks as well. This is in light of the rapid rise in the deployment of generative AI across all industries.
Singapore has also developed a crosswalk to map the enhanced AI Verify Testing Framework with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology AI Risk Management Framework: Generative AI Profile. This marks a continuation of the alignment between Singapore and the US – both global leaders in AI – in the area of AI governance.
Businesses adopting AI solutions may wish to test their AI systems using the AI Verify Testing Framework to ensure safety and compliance, not just against Singapore standards, but against global principles as well. This will further provide for secure cross-border deployment. The AI Verify Testing Framework is available for download at the AI Verify Foundation website here (available at www.aiverifyfoundation.sg).
International Collaboration
Singapore’s AI Safety Institute has signed a Joint Statement with France’s AI Safety Institute to begin collaboration on AI safety and cooperation.
Further, Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority and Thailand’s National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to combat telecommunications fraud across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Concluding Words
The proliferation of AI solutions provides businesses with a wealth of opportunities to enhance their operations and services. However, the speed of development means that safety and security are of utmost importance when utilising AI technology to avoid the corresponding risks.
Singapore’s efforts at enhancing AI governance frameworks, and at strengthening the alignment of global standards, paves the way for the smoother adoption of AI solutions, particularly in the cross-border context. Businesses should ensure that they utilise the available tools to set themselves up for more effective global AI deployment.
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