SINGAPORE: Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba opened its first joint research institute outside China in Singapore on Wednesday (Feb 28), in a collaboration with Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

The joint institute will explore technological breakthroughs and real-life artificial intelligence (AI) solutions in areas such as health, ageing and lifestyle.

Alibaba will commit a multimillion-dollar investment annually for an initial five years, and the institute will start with a pool of 50 researchers from both organisations.

Alibaba’s contribution to the research institute will come from the US$15 billion (S$20 billion) fund earmarked for the Alibaba Discovery, Adventure, Momentum and Outlook (DAMO) Academy programme. The company declined to give an exact figure, but said its scale will rival the likes of the Singtel-NTU corporate lab, which was funded for S$42.5 million.

NTU president Professor Subra Suresh and Alibaba Group Chief Technology Officer Jeff Zhang signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Wednesday to mark the launch of the institute.

“NTU is known for its dedication to cutting-edge technologies like AI, as well as a strong track record of fruitful partnerships with the industry,” Mr Zhang, who leads the Alibaba DAMO Academy, said.

USING AI TO ADDRESS AGEING POPULATION

NTU and Alibaba said they aim to further push the frontiers of AI over the next five years and deploy AI solutions in scenarios ranging from home, retail, community and urban transportation to hospitals and nursing homes.

“Using AI technologies, we can address fundamental societal challenges such as an ageing population, which is a huge issue for cities with a rapidly ageing population such as Singapore,” said Prof Suresh.

“For example, virtual AI assistants can be deployed to improve work productivity and smart sensors can be used to watch the health of the elderly, with data stored on the cloud for continuous monitoring,” he said.

The new research institute can also tap on the NTU Smart Campus initiative – which sees the campus being used as a living testbed for smart technologies developed by NTU scientists or its industry partners.

NTU students, staff and faculty will also have opportunities to go on exchange programmes to Alibaba’s facilities and vice versa.

Senior Minister of State for Health Amy Khor said that the NTU LILY research centre, Singapore’s first research centre focusing on technological solutions to address ageing problems, will also explore collaborations with the National Health Group under the NTU-Alibaba partnership. 

ALIBABA TO OPEN RESEARCH LABS IN SIX OTHER CITIES

Last year, Alibaba announced it would more than double research and development spending to US$15 billion over the next three years to develop next-generation technology under its Alibaba DAMO Academy program.

Singapore is one of seven locations chosen to host the research labs, which are part of the research programme.

As for why Alibaba chose Singapore, Mr Zhang said: “Singapore is well known for its world-leading technology R&D institutions, strong base of academic research talent, a population that is receptive to the next big thing in technology and supportive government policies like the Smart Nation initiative.

“Singapore is also well-equipped with multi-language skillsets, which is extremely valuable for speech analysis and natural language processing research,” he added.

The other cities Alibaba plans to establish similar research labs are Moscow, Tel Aviv, Beijing and Hangzhou, as well as San Mateo and Bellevue in the United States. 

SINGAPORE: Turn up at 12pm at Raffles Place and pay S$3 into a box to get S$50 in return was the premise of what seemed to be a publicity stunt on Wednesday (Feb 28).

But the excitement of the afternoon ended after an hour, as hundreds of people had gathered in hopes of getting free money, resulting in the organiser calling a halt to proceedings.

The crowd, that was jostling and shoving around the box, was asked to disperse at 12.45pm by the organiser, who was previously seen talking to two uniformed officers for about 10 minutes. 

The organiser claimed that she was told to stop by the police. 

“I’m very sorry but because the police is already here, we have to stop the activation. It’s very unfortunate that we cannot continue so for your safety, please slowly disperse from this location,” the organiser told the disappointed crowd.

Earlier that morning at 11.30am, about 300 people were seen lining up in front of the cash vending machine, called #3dollarballer on its website, that was stationed just outside Chevron House.

At 11.45am, efforts were made by the organiser to move the box to the pavement by Battery Road – triggering a mad rush as crowds surged forward to follow the money booth. 

Then at 12pm, the box was shifted once more to the grass patch in front of Chevron House where the crowd grew in strength. 

The first person to successfully feed the machine S$3 to receive her S$50 was 30-year-old Kate Koh.

“I work around here and my colleague told me about this event happening. I was quite lucky because I was standing near the area the box moved to,” she said. 

Channel NewsAsia saw six people successfully try the cash vending machine. 

Another man who got his chance, 74-year-old Jeffrey Yao, said he only followed the crowd after seeing the box. 

“I was just passing by, so I didn’t know what was going on. I queued for about 20 minutes to get the S$50,” Mr Yao said. 

Teenager June Yeo did not get her chance, however. She waited for about an hour in line. 

“It’s quite sad that I didn’t manage to get (the money). But I think this kind of thing is good because who doesn’t want free money?” said the 16-year-old. 

Another teenager who did not want to be named told Channel NewsAsia that the crowd scared him. “All this pushing and shoving, I’m wondering now if it is worth it,” he said.  

Ash Low, 28, turned up only because he wanted to find out who is behind the stunt after finding out about it on Instagram. 

“I think it is quite interesting as they haven’t revealed who is behind this so I want to find out,” Mr Low said, adding that he had intended to spend the entire lunch time here. 

“We wanted to come early at first because we were not sure how it was going to turn out. But looks like there is a very big turn out.”

The promotion, which has gained prominence on social media, is due to make another appearance at 313@Somerset this afternoon, according to its website. It appeared on Orchard Road on Tuesday between 5pm and 8pm. 

The machine is actually a man inside the box handing out the S$50 dollar whenever someone feeds S$3 in. 

When the organisers were asked if the second installment for Wednesday would go on, they said they had no comment. 

Channel NewsAsia has reached out to the police for more information. 

SINGAPORE: There have been 186 articles published on the Factually government website since its inception in May 2012, said Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim said in Parliament on Wednesday (Feb 28).

Dr Yaacob, in response to a parliamentary question by MP Sun Xueling, said articles on the website hosted on gov.sg are published on a “timely basis so prevailing falsehoods and misinformation are debunked as soon as possible”.

The site has debunked assertions on various matters ranging from savings and taxes to education and employment, and its articles target “DRUMS – distortions, rumours, untruths, myths and smears” – in particular, he added.  

An example is in January this year, when there were several online articles that claimed the Government had raised the Central Provident Fund (CPF) retirement sum in a secret policy change. “In fact, the revised figures had been publicly announced in 2015 and was widely reported in the media,” the minister pointed out.

Another online rumour claimed that our public universities had reserved a minimum 20 per cent quota for foreign students when “no such policy exists”, he added.

Dr Yaacob mentioned that besides the written word, Factually also uses graphics for greater clarity on some topics and, in the coming year, will also explore the use of videos.