Singapore expands AI push through new national partnership with Google

Singapore and Google will jointly expand frontier artificial intelligence (AI) adoption across public services, research, education, and corporate innovation.

Singapore’s Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) and Google have signed a new national AI partnership for this move, the two sides announced in a joint statement on Tuesday. This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) builds on the 2022 agreement with the Smart Nation and Digital Government Group. This partnership supports Singapore’s National AI Strategy to scale up the adoption of AI for economic growth and the public good.

The main focus of the collaboration is the use of AI in health and life sciences. Google DeepMind is exploring a partnership with Singapore’s public health cluster as part of a global AI collaborative clinical research initiative. This project focuses on AI systems that support doctors’ treatment. They also assist patients in their entire medical activities under the supervision of a physician.

Google DeepMind is also partnering with the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Singapore to train researchers on agent AI tools for science, including the Co-Scientist platform for biomedical applications. Workshops will be held to help researchers apply cutting-edge AI tools to scientific discoveries.

Separately, Google and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (ASTAR) will collaborate to accelerate innovation in materials and life sciences. ASTAR researchers will have access to AI-enabled tools on Google Cloud to support scientific analysis and hypothesis generation within a secure environment.

The partnership also includes initiatives focused on accessibility. Google DeepMind is developing a running assistant powered by Gemma that uses spatial reasoning to provide real-time environmental awareness for visually impaired athletes.

In education, Google and Singapore’s Ministry of Education (MOE) are expanding their collaboration on AI tools for teaching and learning. Google Workspace for Education’s AI capabilities are already available to educators from elementary school to college, providing assistance with lesson planning and course materials.

Google will also continue its AI training and talent development programs under its ‘Majulah AI’ initiative, including Skills Ignition SG with Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), its startup-focused accelerator program, and Gemini Academy.

To support enterprise adoption, Google Cloud’s Singapore Engineering Center and its team of forward-deployed engineers will work with local businesses on agentic AI transformation projects. The partnership also builds on Google Cloud collaborations with organizations such as AI Singapore, GovTech Singapore, HTX, CSIT, and the National University of Singapore.

The agreement also focuses on AI governance and safety. Google, Cyber Security Authority of Singapore (CSA), GovTech Singapore and IMDA jointly announced the results of an AI Agent Sandbox study that investigated how “computer-based” AI agents perform tasks such as software testing and social assistance applications.

Google DeepMind is also collaborating with IMDA and MLCommons on multilingual and multimodal AI safety benchmarks to support responsible AI adoption across diverse languages and cultures.

“Bringing frontier AI to public services and enterprises is at the core of Singapore’s AI ambitions,” said Chng Kai Fong, Permanent Secretary for Digital Development and Information. Google Singapore country managing director Ben King said the partnership aims to accelerate “real-world impact” through AI adoption, while creating a “scalable blueprint for responsible AI innovation.”